King Kong Parodied at MTV Awards
Wedding Crashers took top honors at the 2006 MTV Movie Awards, winning the Golden Popcorn for ‘Best Movie,’ along with awards for ‘Best On-Screen Team’ & ‘Breakthrough Performance’
Other memorable moments throughout the evening included the laugh-at-loud film parodies of “King Kong,” “Da Vinci Code,” and “Mission Impossible III.”
The 2006 MTV Movie Awards airs nationwide on Thursday, June 8th at 9pm ET/PT.
King Kong DVD Sets Universal Studios Record
King Kong ascended to extraordinary heights in its first six days in release, selling more than 6.5 million DVDs, the largest six-day performance in Universal Studios history. Fans snatched the blockbuster adventure film off shelves, generating $100 million in consumer spending for the Universal Studios Home Entertainment release.
You can buy your copy on Amazon now
King Kong’s is the studio’s fourth-highest grossing film in the studio’s 94-year history. To date, the film has amassed approximately $550 million in ticket sales worldwide, following behind “Jurassic Park,” “E.T.” and “The Lost World: Jurassic Park.
The King Kong DVD will be released March 28. Looks like there will be three versions:
a full screen version
a widescreen version
a 2-disc widescren special edition
here’s what disc 2 of the special edition DVD contains:
- Special Introduction by Peter Jackson
- Post-Production Diaries: Director Peter Jackson takes you on an unforgettable journey revealing virtually every aspect of post-production with nearly three hours of exclusive behind the scenes footage.
- Kong’s New York, 1933 - 1930s New York comes alive in this fascinating piece that explores vaudeville, the skyscraper boom, the construction of the Empire State building and more.
- Skull Island: A Natural History - Travel to treacherous Skull Island with Peter Jackson and his crew
You can preorder on Amazon now
It was a pretty good night for King Kong, as the film captured three of the four Oscars for which it was nominated. Kong took home Oscars for Achievement in Visual Effects, Achievement in Sound Mixing, and Achievement in Sound Editing.
Unfortunately, this was not one of Oscar’s better years in terms of viewership. An estimated 38.8 million people watched the Academy Awards Sunday, down 8 percent from last year and the worst since 2003 when 33 million viewers tuned in to see “Chicago” take the best-picture award — the Oscars hadn’t dipped below 40 million viewers since 1987, according to Nielsen Media Research.
King Kong video game: placed 8th on the December top 20 game list
King Kong the video game scored strongly and came in 8th during the critical holiday shopping month of December 2005. According to stats from gamedaily.com that were released today:
- The console versions of the game have been a critical success, garnering over 80% GameRankings.com.
- NPD has reported that the PS2 version of the game has sold 376,000 copies in just two months, with the Xbox pushing 180,000 units ( make sure to have an hdtv if you grab the xbox360 version ).
- In the U.K., the game has been in the top 5 best sellers for the past seven weeks according to the ELSPA.
- All told, the PS2, PSP, GCN, DS, PC, Mobile, Xbox and Xbox 360 versions have sold more than 2 million copies worldwide.
King Kong Garners Four Oscar Noms
King Kong has earned four Oscar nominations. The film was nominated for: Art Direction; Sound Editing; Sound Mixing; and, of course, Visual Effects.
The Academy Awards will be presented on Sunday, March 5, 2006 and televised live by the ABC beginning at 8 p.m. EST. The all-important red carpet arrivals show will precede the actual Oscar presentation at 7 p.m.
King Kong Lands Cover of The Economist
King Kong has made in appearance in the unlikeliest of places - the cover of The Economist.
The venerable British news and business publication is running a feature story about Big Media’s struggle with the digital world - arguing that ViacomDisneyTimeWarnerFoxNBCUniversal… will overcome the threat as they will eventually figure out how to fully capitalize on the promise of the web.
The article begins: “’PAIN is temporary, film is forever.’ That hopeful thought, which found its way into the original script of Peter Jackson’s recent re-make of King Kong, might be seized upon by today’s beleaguered entertainment industry.”
King Kong Passes $200 Million Mark
According to boxofficemojo, King Kong fell to the number seven spot at the weekend box office, grossing roughly $7.5 million. That brings its cumulative domestic box office to nearly $203 million.
Narnia had clearly won the battle of the big budget holiday fantasy flicks, as it remained in the top 5 (at number 4) this weekend grossing more than $10 million ($261.2 million domestic to date).
Still, King Kong has taken in $476.5 million worldwide since it opened in mid-December. Not too shabby.
UK Sunday Times: “King Kong brings back the petticoat”
Like many movies before it, King Kong is shaping some of the latest fashion trends.
In today’s Sunday Times, Tony Allen writes that:
FORGET the camisole, the bustier and all the other bits of exotic underwear that have lately become more familiar as women’s skimpy outerwear. The hot international fashion trend for summer this year is likely to be the petticoat.
Several decades after the fashion world’s least fashionable undergarment appeared to vanish from boutique racks, a giant gorilla and his female sidekick are helping to spur a comeback.
not only that …
Fashion gurus have lined up to predict that women tired of the tacky excesses of Madonna-style bras and bustiers would soon be gratefully turning to what one retail executive described as “the new pristine version of sexiness”.
King Kong’s box office take this weekend fell by 50% to $12.5 million, leaving it behind ‘The Chronicles of Narnia,’ which brought in $15.4 million, and a little horror flick called ‘Hostel,’ which captured the number one spot bringing in an impressive $20.1 million. This was reported by boxofficemojo.com.
‘Hostel,’ which cost only $4.8 million to make, is about young Americans who become unwilling subjects of a pay-to-torture service during a pleasure trip to Europe.
King Kong’s domestic box office now stands at $192.5 million, leaving it in a good position to top the $200 million mark by the end of the week.