What is it about “King Kong” that keeps us filing back into theaters every 30 years or so to check in on the big fellow?
After all, we know the ending.
Gregg Mitman, a professor of the history of science and medical history at UW-Madison, says we are drawn to theaters to see “Kong” for some of the same reasons that made the movie such a hit with fans in the 1930s, when movie studio execs were initially appalled after producer David O. Selznick announced plans to make a costly movie about a lovesick ape that climbs to the top of the Empire State Building. But the $680,000 original brought back $5 million to the RKO studio.