UIP: Kong is King at the UK Box Office

UIP: Kong is King at the UK Box Office

LONDON, December 19/PRNewswire/ -- Peter Jackson's KING KONG from Universal-UIP, which stormed in to cinemas
across the UK & Ireland on December 15th, has scaled to the top of the UK box
office this weekend with a monstrous gross of GBP6.944,740 at 481 theatres.
This includes Thursday's gross of GBP947.957.

The huge opening, representing a fantastic per-cinema average of
GBP14,438, is all the more remarkable for the film's three hour plus running
time, and for the competition from the year's busiest shopping weekend, not
mention Saturday night's finals of The X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing.

The UK's leading film critics have been unanimous in their praise of
Jackson's vision of one of the screen's most enduring classics:

- The Times (Kevin Maher)...Art and heart make Kong a mighty movie.

- Daily Express (Neil Norman)...From the opening scenes...Peter Jackson's
remake has you in the palm of its great hairy hand.

- Daily Telegraph (Tim Robey)...A thundering triumph

- The Guardian (Peter Bradshaw)...Jackson has outdone Lord of the Rings
with his superbly realised remake

- Daily Mirror (David Edwards)...Special effects that will make your jaw
drop.

- News of the World (Polly Graham)...A magnificent chest-pounding beast
of a film.

- Sunday Mirror (Mark Adams)...Ape epic is a roaring hit.

- Time Out (Ben Walters)...A marvel of evolution, a colossal thing of
power and beauty

- Heat (Charles Gant)...the event film of 2005 is here.

Triple Academy Award (R) winner Peter Jackson, whose The Lord of the
Rings trilogy made motion picture history, refashions the tragic
beauty-and-the-beat love story - infusing the spectacle of the tale with
propulsive action and a poignant humanity - and gives us a Kong never before
thought possible.

Universal Pictures Presents A WingNut Films Productions KING KONG,
starring Naomi Watts, Jack black, Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Colin
Hanks, Jamie Bell and Andy Serkis as Kong. The music is by James Newton
Howard. The senior visual effects supervisor is Joe Letteri. Special makeup,
creatures and miniatures by Richard Taylor. The film editor is Jamie Selkirk,
ACE; production designer is Grant Major; director of photography is Andrew
Lesnie, ACS, ASC,; and the co-producer is Philippa Boyens. Produced by Jan
Blenkin, Carolynne Cunningham, Fran Walsh, Peter Jackson. The screenplay is
by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens & Peter Jackson. Directed by Peter Jackson. A
Universal Picture (c) 2005 Universal Studios. Distributed by United
International Pictures.

KING KONG opened throughout the UK & Ireland on Thursday, December 15th.

Source: United International Pictures (UK)

For further information please contact: Debbie Turner, Publicity Manager, UIP (UK), T: +44(0)20-7534-5221 / Email: debbie_turner@uip.co.uk

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