King Kong (1933 film)

King Kong is a 1933 American pre-Code adventure horror monster film directed and produced by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, with special effects by Willis H. O'Brien and music by Max Steiner. Produced and distributed by RKO Radio Pictures, it is the first film in the King Kong franchise and combines live action sequences with stop-motion animation using rear-screen projection. The idea for the film came when Cooper decided he wanted to make a film about a giant gorilla struggling against modern civilization. The film stars Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, and Bruce Cabot. The film follows a giant ape dubbed Kong who feels affection for a beautiful young woman offered to him as a sacrifice.

King Kong opened in New York City on March 2, 1933, to rave reviews, with praise for its stop-motion animation and score. During its initial run it earned a profit of $650,000, which increased to $2,847,000 by the time it was released a second time in 1952. Various scenes were cut by censors and later restored in 1970. Later, in 1991, the film was deemed "culturally, historically and aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. In 2010 it was ranked by Rotten Tomatoes as the greatest horror film of all time and the fifty-sixth greatest film of all time. Various new editions of the film have also been released. A sequel, Son of Kong, was made the same year as the original film, and several more films have been made, including two remakes in 1976 and 2005. The characters and story have since entered the public domain; the film's copyright is set to expire in 2029 in the US. Analysis of the film has included such topics as racial stereotypes, Ann's relationship with the other characters, and the struggle between nature and civilization.