King Kong to return to theaters for the first time in over 60 years

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

The last time KING KONG was in theaters was over 60 years ago, when Dwight D. Eisenhower was president, not a single man-made item was orbiting the earth, and the average movie ticket cost a mere 59 cents. The original film is one of the all-time greats, and it will soon be returning to theaters courtesy of Fathom Events. Traveling to an uncharted South Pacific island with an adventurer following tales of a God-Ape, Ann Darrow (Fay Wray) is captured by the island's natives to serve as a human sacrifice to Kong, a giant ape., but when Kong sees Darrow, he is overcome with love and is soon captured, taken to New York, and put on display.

Fathom Events will be releasing KING KONG on over 600 screens nationwide as part of the TCM Big Screen Classics series on March 16, 2020. Additionally, TCM Primetime Host Ben Mankiewicz will offer "all-new insight and commentary on one of the most well-known, influential (and still thrilling) films of all time." Starring Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, and Bruce Cabot, KING KONG also features groundbreaking stop-motion animation from Willis O'Brien, and while I suppose they don't exactly hold up to modern-day effects, they're still incredibly impressive, especially when you consider that they were made close to 90 years ago. The chance to see KING KONG on the big-screen isn't something anyone should pass up if they have the opportunity.

Our last look at King Kong on the big-screen was just several years ago with KONG: SKULL ISLAND, but the giant ape will be returning later this year to tussle with Godzilla himself in Adam Wingard's GODZILLA VS. KONG. "In a time when monsters walk the Earth, humanity’s fight for its future sets Godzilla and Kong on a collision course that will see the two most powerful forces of nature on the planet collide in a spectacular battle for the ages," reads the official synopsis. "As Monarch embarks on a perilous mission into uncharted terrain and unearths clues to the Titans’ origins, a human conspiracy threatens to wipe the creatures, both good and bad, from the face of the earth forever."

GODZILLA VS. KONG stars Alexander Skarsgard, Rebecca Hall, Millie Bobby Brown, Eiza Gonzalez, Brian Tyree Henry, Jessica Henwick, Julian Dennison, Kyle Chandler, and Demian Bichir, and will hit theaters on November 20, 2020.