It is set to be the fiercest clash in cinema box office history: Aslan, King of Narnia, versus King Kong.
Walt Disney’s eagerly awaited The Chronicles of Narnia, an adaptation of C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and Universal’s remake of King Kong are to open in British cinemas within days of each other.
Industry experts had expected the two Hollywood studios, both of which are mounting £10 million publicity campaigns for their films, to avoid each other’s release dates. However, the two blockbusters, which each have to recoup production costs in excess of £60 million, will now both open during the same week in December.
Colin Kennedy, the editor of the film magazine Empire, said both studios had played a “who’s-going-to-blink-first game” when opting for December release dates only to find that “neither of them had blinked”. He said that both wanted to replicate the success of The Lord of the Rings films, which were released in winter.
“Winter is the new summer for blockbuster releases,” he said. “The success of the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings films has convinced studios that there are huge profits to be made at this time of the year.
“I think both of these new films opted for December because they saw themselves as natural successors to The Lord of the Rings.”
Robert Mitchell, an analyst for Screen International, the film industry paper, said it was vital that both titles had a successful opening weekend if they were to stand a chance of renewing their costs.
“I think the marketing budgets for these films are equivalent to a fifth of their actual production budget,” he said. “That is because it is absolutely vital that these films make an impact during their first week. By the time these films open people will have made up their minds whether they are going to see them or not. These are not word-of-mouth pictures that will grow over time.”