Although Universals KING KONG has not yet turned into the holiday juggernaut that most industry observers predicted, it muscled its way past Buena Vistas THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE to retain its box office lead during the four-day holiday weekend ended Dec. 26, 2005.
KONG (with impressive vfx from Weta Digital) captured $33.2M for a two-week cume of $120.5M. NARNIA (with impressive vfx of its own from Rhythm & Hues, Sony Pictures Imageworks and ILM) finished second with $31.6M and a three-week cume of $165.1M. Following in third and fourth place were newcomers FUN WITH DICK AND JANE and CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN 2. Sonys FUN brought home $21.5M and Foxs CHEAPER responded with $15.3M. Sonys MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA shot up to fifth place in wide release with $10.1M to bring its tally to $13.2M. Foxs THE FAMILY STONE dropped to sixth place with $10M and $29.2M.
Meanwhile, the seventh, eighth and ninth slots went to three other newcomers: Fox Searchlights THE RINGER ($7.7M), Warner Bros. RUMOR HAS IT ($7.4M) and Universals MUNICH ($6M). Rounding out the top 10 was Warner Bros. HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE (with vfx from Double Negative, Framestore CFC, MPC, ILM, Cinesite, Animal Logic, The Orphanage, BUF and Rising Sun), which added $5.7M to its cume of $262.4M. Box office information obtained from boxofficemojo.com.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
