‘Kong’ surges to conquer ‘Narnia’

Universal’s “King Kong,” which has struggled to gain a toehold with audiences since its much-hyped opening, slipped behind “The Chronicles of Narnia” before climbing back ahead to emerge the holiday weekend winner -- but not by much. Disney’s family adventure film had inched ahead of “Kong” on each of the four days preceding Sunday. But business for Peter Jackson’s epic remake of the classic beauty-and-the-beast story surged ahead by $1 million on Christmas Day: “King Kong” grossed $21.3 million over the three-day weekend, compared with $20.38 million for “Narnia,” according to estimates.

“King Kong” was expected to add another $10 million or so Monday, Universal said, to close the holiday weekend with $31.4 million and a total domestic haul of $118.7 million since its Dec. 14 opening. Disney estimated the four-day total for “Narnia” would be about $30.1 million, bringing its tally since it opened Dec. 9 to about $163.5 million.

One of the year’s most anticipated movies, “King Kong” debuted to a disappointing $66.1 million in its first five days, far less than the $100 million that some industry observers had predicted.

The sluggish opening also dashed any hopes that the special-effects-laden epic would help turn a box office that has lagged for a third straight year.

Universal blamed a number of factors for “King Kong’s” showing, including that many of the children and young adults that the movie hoped to appeal to were still busy with school and unable to make time for the epic.

Considering that Saturday business overall was way off (by roughly 40% to 50% among some individual titles) because it fell on Christmas Eve, the Sunday surge for “King Kong” was “gratifying,” said Marc Shmuger, Universal Pictures vice chairman. The studio has continued to insist that the movie will exhibit stamina over the long run.

“Its pattern of performance is coming in a unique way that is different from the usual blockbuster,” Shmuger said. He conceded that the movie’s three-hour-plus running time was a challenge, as well as “the way the calendar was laid out” -- although he stopped short of second-guessing the movie’s release date.

“Kong” has taken in $153.6 million internationally through Sunday, for a worldwide total of $272.3 million. Given that about half of a movie’s gross flows back to a studio, “Kong” still has a long way to go to break even on its production cost, which Universal says was $207 million, and that doesn’t include massive marketing expenditures.

Among other holiday releases, Universal said Steven Spielberg’s emotionally charged “Munich” opened Friday in 532 theaters and has taken in an estimated $5.7 million in its first four days. The movie about the long-term consequences of avenging the murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics will expand to wide release on Jan. 6.

Of the holiday weekend newcomers, Sony’s Jim Carrey comedy “Fun With Dick and Jane” was the highest grossing, with an estimated $23.5 million (No. 3 for the four-day weekend) and $31.1 million since it opened on Wednesday, followed by Fox’s “Cheaper by the Dozen 2” with $14.8 million (No. 4) and $20.1 million since Wednesday. Fox Searchlight’s “The Ringer” opened Friday and brought in an estimated $8.4 million through Monday in 1,829 locations.

The last time Christmas Day fell on a Sunday was in 1994, and another Jim Carrey movie, “Dumb and Dumber,” was the biggest movie that weekend.

Several other movies hit theaters on Christmas Day.

The Warner Bros. comedy “Rumor Has It” opened Sunday and took in an estimated $7.5 million in its first two days in 2,815 theaters. The Weinstein Co. thriller “Wolf Creek” opened Sunday in 1,749 theaters with about $5.9 million for the two days.

In more limited release, Disney debuted the romantic comedy “Casanova” on Sunday in 37 locations for a two-day total of about $234,000, and New Line Cinema opened Terrence Malick’s “The New World” in time for awards qualifications in just three theaters for a total of $60,000. Sony Pictures Classics opened “Cache” in five theaters on Friday and “The White Countess” in 10 venues on Sunday, with respective totals of $82,053 and $80,046. Awards season front-runner “Brokeback Mountain,” meanwhile, added 148 theaters for a total of 217 locations.

The limited expansion diluted the film’s per-theater strength somewhat to $12,144, but the controversial tale about cowboys in love still lassoed $2.6 million over the four-day period, bringing its three-weekend total to $7.6 million.

Although business year-to-date is still about 5% behind last year, holiday season moviegoing, calculated from the Friday before Thanksgiving weekend, is up about 8% over the comparable 2004 period, according to tracking service Nielsen EDI Inc.

Several industry executives said Monday they were hopeful that business would continue to perk up, although New Year’s weekend presents consumers with distractions.

In most recent years, grosses on Dec. 26 have been higher than on Dec. 23, 24 or 25, so Monday figures are expected to represent the largest single-day portion of the four-day totals, EDI said.