King Kong | |
---|---|
Directed by | |
Screenplay by | |
Story by |
|
Produced by |
|
Starring | |
Cinematography |
|
Edited by | Ted Cheesman |
Music by | Max Steiner |
Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures |
Release dates |
|
Running time | |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $672,254.75[3] |
Box office | $5.3 million[3] |
King Kong is a 1933 American pre-Code adventure horror monster film[4] directed and produced by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, with special effects by Willis H. O'Brien. Produced and distributed by RKO Radio Pictures, it is the first film in the King Kong franchise. The film stars Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong and Bruce Cabot. In the film, a giant ape dubbed King Kong captured from Skull Island attempts to possess a beautiful young woman.
King Kong opened in New York City on March 2, 1933, to rave reviews. It is ranked by Rotten Tomatoes as the greatest horror film of all time[5] and the fifty-sixth greatest film of all time.[6] In 1991, it was deemed "culturally, historically and aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.[7][8] A sequel, titled Son of Kong, was fast-tracked and released the same year, and several more films were made in the following decades, including two remakes in 1976 and 2005, and a cinematic universe (dubbed the MonsterVerse) featuring Kong starting with Kong: Skull Island in 2017.
1933 release: $1,856,000; 1938 release: $306,000; 1944 release: $685,000
1952 release: $2,500,000; budget: $672,254.75