Editing King Kong (1933 film) (section)

==Release and censorship==
===Initial release and box office===
[[File: Grauman's Chinese Theatre, by Carol Highsmith fixed & straightened.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Grauman's Chinese Theatre]], where ''King Kong'' held its Hollywood premiere.]]
King Kong’s campaign included newspaper ads, radio ads, and posters.{{sfn|Cotta Vaz|2005|pp=233, 236}} It premiered in the Radio City Music Hall and RKO Roxy in New York City on March 2, 1933.{{sfn|Harryhausen|Dalton|2008|p=84}}{{sfn|Lasky|1984|p=94}} U. S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared the four-day nationwide [[Emergency Banking Act of 1933|bank holiday]] three days after the film's premiere in New York City.{{sfn|Cotta Vaz|2005|p=236}}{{sfn|Lasky|1984|pages=94–95}} The film was a box-office success and during the opening weekend earned an estimated $90,000.<ref name=":0" /> Receipts fell by up to 50% during the second week of the film's release because of the national bank holiday.<ref name="lords">{{cite book |last=Ahamed |first=Liaquat |author-link=Liaquat Ahamed |title=[[Lords of Finance]] |date=2009 |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |isbn=9780143116806 |page=[https://archive.org/details/lordsoffinanceba00aham/page/452 452]}}</ref> Attendance of the film dropped within the second and third weeks of its New York release.{{Sfn|Erb|2009|p=45}} During the film's first run it made a profit of $650,000.{{sfn|Jewell|1994|p=43}} Before the 1952 re-release, the film is reported to have worldwide rentals of $2,847,000 including $1,070,000 from the United States and Canada and profits of $1,310,000.{{sfn|Jewell|1994|p=39}} The Hollywood premiere was held on March 24, 1933, in Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.<ref>{{harvnb|Cotta Vaz|2005|p=236}}; {{harvnb|Harryhausen|Dalton|2008|p=84}}</ref> The screening was preceded by a performance featuring dances of Indigenous people and trapeze performances.{{Sfn|Cotta Vaz|2005|pp=236–237}} It was not officially released until April 7, 1933.<ref name="tcm notes" /> It was re-released in 1952 following the promising re-release of ''Snow White''.{{Sfn|Erb|2009|p=125}} After the 1952 re-release, ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' estimated the film had earned an additional $1.6 million in the United States and Canada, bringing its total to $3.9 million in cumulative rentals in the United States.<ref>{{cite news |date=January 21, 1953 |title='Gone,' With $26,000,000, Still Tops All-Timers, Greatest Show Heads 1952 |url=https://archive.org/stream/variety189-1953-01#page/n361/mode/1up |work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |page=4}}</ref> Profits from the re-release were estimated by the studio to be at about $2.5 million,<ref name="tcm notes" /> which was about double of what the film earned in 1933.{{Sfn|Erb|2009|p=126}}[[File:RKO Keith's Theater ad - 24 March 1933, NW, Washington, DC.png|thumb|left|upright|Theatrical advertisement from 1933]]
===Censorship and restorations===
The [[Motion Picture Production Code|Production Code]]'s stricter rules were put into effect in Hollywood after the film's 1933 premiere and it was progressively censored further, with several scenes being either trimmed or excised altogether for the 1938–1956 rereleases.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Miller |first=Frank |date=March 2, 2007 |title=Pop Culture 101: King Kong |url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/2690/king-kong/#articles-reviews?articleId=158012 |access-date=2025-01-10 |website=Turner Classic Movies |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Tatna |first=Meher |date=2020-11-09 |title=Out of the Vaults: 'King Kong', 1933 |url=https://goldenglobes.com/articles/out-vaults-king-kong-1933/#:~:text=For%20subsequent%20releases%20of%20the,in%20honor%20of%20Wray's%20passing |access-date=2025-01-10 |website=Golden Globes |language=en-US}}</ref> Censors removed the scene of the Brontosaurus mauling crewmen in the water, chasing one up a tree and killing him.{{Sfn|Morton|2005|p=84}} They also removed the scenes where Kong undresses Ann Darrow,<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=AFI{{!}}Catalog – King Kong (1933) |url=https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/4005 |access-date=2025-01-09 |website=catalog.afi.com}}</ref>{{Sfn|Morton|2005|p=84}} bites and steps on people.<ref name=":0" /> The scene where Kong mistakes a sleeping woman for Ann and drops her to her death after realizing his mistake was also removed.<ref name=":0" />{{Sfn|Morton|2005|p=84}} An additional scene portraying giant insects, spiders, a [[reptile]]-like predator and a tentacled creature devouring the crew members shaken off the log by Kong onto the floor of the canyon below was deemed too gruesome by RKO even by pre-Code standards. Cooper thought it "stopped the story", and thus the scene was censored by the studio before the original release.{{sfn|Harryhausen|Dalton|2008|p=84}} Members of the preview audience also left the film early because they were concerned about the scene.{{sfn|Von Gunden|1989|p=119}} The footage is considered lost, except for only a few stills and pre-production drawings.{{sfn|Morton|2005|pp=75–76}}<ref>{{cite web |last1=Wednesday |first1=WTM • |title=The Lost Scene from 1933's King Kong – the Spider Pit |url=https://www.neatorama.com/2018/12/12/The-Lost-Scene-from-1933-s-King-Kong-the-Spider-Pit/ |website=Neatorama |date=December 12, 2018 |access-date=January 28, 2020 |language=en |archive-date=January 28, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200128131026/https://www.neatorama.com/2018/12/12/The-Lost-Scene-from-1933-s-King-Kong-the-Spider-Pit/ |url-status=live}}</ref> There are also claims that it was never filmed and was only in the script and novelization.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-04-02 |title=King Kong (non-existent cut content of Pre-code monster adventure film; 1933) – The Lost Media Wiki |url=https://lostmediawiki.com/King_Kong_(non-existent_cut_content_of_Pre-code_monster_adventure_film;_1933) |access-date=2024-04-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240402171457/https://lostmediawiki.com/King_Kong_(non-existent_cut_content_of_Pre-code_monster_adventure_film;_1933) |archive-date=April 2, 2024 }}</ref>

The film was initially banned in [[Nazi Germany]], with the censors describing it as an "attack against the nerves of the German people" and a "violation of German race feeling".<ref>{{Cite news |date=December 2, 2015 |title=Hitlers Kino: "Führer"-Faible für Garbo oder Dick und Doof |url=https://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/hitlers-kino-fuehrer-faible-fuer-garbo-oder-dick-und-doof-fotostrecke-132203.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190404161903/http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/hitlers-kino-fuehrer-faible-fuer-garbo-oder-dick-und-doof-fotostrecke-132203.html |archive-date=April 4, 2019 |access-date=August 27, 2019 |newspaper=Der Spiegel Online|location=Hamburg, Germany }}</ref> Shortly following its release the film was also banned in Finland for violence; the ban was released in 1939.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Flavorwire Staff |date=2012-02-03 |title=Movies Banned in Foreign Countries for Weird Reasons |url=https://www.flavorwire.com/254645/movies-banned-in-foreign-countries-for-weird-reasons |access-date=2025-03-04 |website=Flavorwire |language=en}}</ref> [[File:King Kong Re-release Trailer.webm|thumb|Trailer for the 1938 re-release of ''King Kong'' (1:32).]]RKO did not preserve copies of the film's negative or release prints with the excised footage, and the cut scenes were considered lost for many years. In 1969, a 16mm print, including the censored footage, was found in Philadelphia. The cut scenes were added to the film, restoring it to its original theatrical running time of 100 minutes. This version was re-released to [[art house]]s by [[Janus Films]] in 1970.{{sfn|Morton|2005|pp=75–76}} Over the next two decades, [[Universal Pictures|Universal Studios]] undertook further photochemical restoration of ''King Kong.'' This was based on a 1942 release print with missing censor cuts taken from a 1937 print, which "contained heavy vertical scratches from projection."<ref>[http://www.creativeplanetnetwork.com/dcp/news/king-kong/43148 Millimeter Magazine article, 1 January 2006] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130521015000/http://www.creativeplanetnetwork.com/dcp/news/king-kong/43148 |date=May 21, 2013}} Retrieved: March 15, 2012</ref> An original release print located in the UK in the 1980s was found to contain the cut scenes in better quality.<ref name=":1" /> After a 6-year worldwide search for the best surviving materials, a further, fully digital restoration utilizing [[4K resolution]] [[Image scanner|scanning]] was completed by [[Warner Bros.]] in 2005. This restoration also had a 4-minute [[overture]] added, bringing the overall running time to 104 minutes.<ref name="autogenerated1">[http://www.thedigitalbits.com/site_archive/articles/robertharris/harris102505.html "Robert A. Harris On King Kong"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140813142801/http://thedigitalbits.com/site_archive/articles/robertharris/harris102505.html|date=August 13, 2014}} Retrieved: March 15, 2012,</ref> The project was funded by [[The Film Foundation]] and the [[Hollywood Foreign Press Association]].<ref name=":2" /> Somewhat controversially, ''King Kong'' was [[film colorization|colorized]] for a 1989 [[Turner Home Entertainment]] video release.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1989-02-17-8903060204-story.html |title=Colorized ''King Kong'' May Bug Fans  |work=[[Chicago Tribune]] |first=Andy |last=Wickstrom |date=Feb 17, 1989 |access-date=Jul 26, 2022}}</ref><ref name="tcm notes" />
===Television and home media===
After the 1956 re-release, the film was sold to television and was first broadcast on March 5, 1956''.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rainho |first1=Manny |date=March 2015 |title=This Month in Movie History |journal=Classic Images |issue=477 |page=26}}</ref> King Kong'' had numerous [[VHS]] and [[LaserDisc]] releases of varying quality before receiving an official studio release on DVD. In 1984, ''King Kong'' was one of the first films to be released on [[LaserDisc]] as part of the [[Criterion Collection]], and was [[Audio commentary#History of audio commentaries|the first movie]] to have an [[audio commentary]] track included.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.denverpost.com/2005/08/24/if-dvd-killed-the-film-star-criterion-honors-the-ghost/|title=If DVD killed the film star, Criterion honors the ghost|date=August 24, 2005|website=The Denver Post|language=en-US|access-date=November 11, 2019|archive-date=November 11, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191111123300/https://www.denverpost.com/2005/08/24/if-dvd-killed-the-film-star-criterion-honors-the-ghost/|url-status=live}}</ref> Criterion's audio commentary was by film historian [[Ronald Haver|Ron Haver]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Schneider |first1=Wolf |title=Criterion for laserdisc sales |journal=The Hollywood Reporter |date=January 21, 1985 |volume=285 |issue=21|pages=1–2}}</ref> The Haver commentary was available on the [[FilmStruck]] streaming service.<ref>{{cite web |title=Watch a Clip of Criterion's Long-Lost 'King Kong' Audio Commentary |url=https://nerdist.com/article/king-kong-commentary-clip-criterion-filmstruck/ |website=Nerdist}}</ref> [[Image Entertainment]] released another LaserDisc around 1993.<ref>{{cite book |title=King Kong |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/28363532 |publisher=WorldCat |oclc=28363532 |access-date=22 January 2025}}</ref> The VHS release from [[Turner Home Entertainment|Turner]] was a 60th-anniversary edition in 1992 featuring a front cover that had the sound effect of Kong roaring when his chest was pressed. It had orders for over 140,000 copies, with the colorized version being preferred. It also included a 25-minute documentary, ''It Was Beauty Killed the Beast'' (1992).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Toumarkine |first1=Doris |title=Retailers going ape over 'Kong' |journal=The Hollywood Reporter |date=September 11, 1992 |volume=323 |issue=40 |pages=1, 50}}; {{cite journal |last1=Parisi |first1=Paula |title=Vid dealers have sets to suit |journal=The Hollywood Reporter |date=December 14, 1992 |volume=325 |issue=3 |pages=9, 13}}</ref> 

In 2005, [[Warner Bros.]] released its digital restoration of ''King Kong'' in a US 2-disc Special Edition DVD, coinciding with the theatrical release of [[Peter Jackson]]'s [[King Kong (2005 film)|remake]].<ref name="tcm notes"/> The restoration was funded partially by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.<ref>{{cite news |title=Restored King Kong At LACMA |url=https://goldenglobes.com/articles/restored-king-kong-lacma/ |work=Golden Globes |date=9 December 2013}}</ref> The DVD release had numerous extra features, including a new, third audio commentary by [[visual effects]] artists [[Ray Harryhausen]] and [[Ken Ralston]], with archival excerpts from actress [[Fay Wray]] and producer/director [[Merian C. Cooper]]. At ''American Cinematographer'', Kenneth Sweeney found the extras on disc 1 lackluster for such an important release. Disc 2 included more in-depth features, with a short biographical film on Cooper, and "RKO Production 601: The Making of ''King Kong''", produced by Peter Jackson. Disc 2 included additional interviews with many relevant people. The DVD was also sold in a limited edition with ''Son of Kong'' and ''Mighty Joe Young''<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sweeney |first1=Kenneth |title=DVD Playback |journal=American Cinematographer |date=February 2006 |volume=87 |issue=2 |page=14}}</ref> Warners issued a US digibook-packaged Blu-ray in 2010. [[Rudy Behlmer]] wrote the accompanying 32-page booklet.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Tribbey |first1=Chris |title=Warner brings original 'Kong' to Blu-ray Sept. 28 |journal=Home Media Magazine |date=May 31, 2010 |volume=32 |issue=22}}</ref>