King Kong is not the dominant beast people either expected or hoped for. Crowd pleasers and family movies tend to do well over the holidays.

It was, realistically, a tough sell, despite the industry and media hype. It's incredibly tricky to get audiences excited about a movie that doesn't have a strong human character.

One could take these movies and learn a lot about Hollywood, but you wouldn't learn much about America. Because they are not popular.

This is prime time for a picture like this between nomination and awards. This is when they make all their money, and it's at $50 million before it's even nominated.

Horror always has a consistent audience. That doesn't often translate into blockbuster numbers but since they tend to be cheaper anyway, they don't need to do over $100 million.

Generally speaking, 2004 has so far been a mixed bag. This year we've seen the highest of the highs and some very low lows.