Just to continue my attempt to throw a wrench into the inane box office crisis so many have created around King Kong (see below post) … I just received the email Daily Variety sends out with final box office figures for the three day, Friday-Sunday 12/22-25 weekend. Apparently, the earlier numbers underestimated the grosses of both Narnia and Kong. So here are the apparently official numbers (via Variety):
In 13 days of release, King Kong has grossed $120,597,410, including $33,274,680 this past weekend on 3,576 screens for a per screen average of $9,305.
In 18 days of release, Narnia has grossed $165,135,135, including $31,692,295 this past weekend on 3,853 screens for a per screen average of $8,225.
Again, I’m not trying to knock Narnia at all. It’s showing stronger legs and should easily pass the $250 million mark, especially considering its virtually unheard of 0% change in weekend box office compared to Kong’s perfectly normal 34% drop. I will argue, however, once again, that there is nothing wrong with Kong’s box office other than it not fulfilling the extraordinary (and potentially unreasonable) expectations everyone seemed to have for it in the first place.
Out of Focus 