Grossed $90,000 its opening weekend, the biggest opening ever at the time.
In his review in The New York Times (3 March 1933), film critic Mordaunt Hall incorrectly refers to Fay Wray's character as "Ann Redman".
It has been said that King Kong was the first Hollywood film to use a fully symphonic musical score. As memorable and effective as the musical score was, some have made the same claim about RKO's Bird of Paradise, released earlier. (Perhaps that claim should be revised to "the first memorable film...") Regardless, Max Steiner, composer for both films (and many later classics, including Gone with the Wind and Casablanca) was a visionary, forward thinking man. One of the legends surrounding this film is that director Merian C. Cooper paid Steiner from his own pocket after RKO bosses expressed concern over mounting production costs.
Jungle scenes were filmed on the same set as the jungle scenes in The Most Dangerous Game, which also happened to star Fay Wray and Robert Armstrong.
King Kong does not appear until nearly 47 minutes into the running time.
King Kong's roar was a lion's and a tiger's roar combined and run backwards.
Kong's "official" height (from the posters) is 50 feet. He was closer to 19 feet tall in the jungle and close to 25 feet when in New York City.
One of the characters in line to see Kong complains to his lady companion, "These tickets cost me twenty bucks." At presumably $10 per ticket, this would have been a tremendous cost in Depression-wracked 1933. In contrast, a ticket to see the 1933 New York Yankees, which featured Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, or to this movie itself, would have been about thirty-five cents.
Originally, there was supposed to be an overhead shot of Kong falling from the Empire State Building. This was accomplished by adding Kong in post-production, falling towards the ground. Real footage of the building was used, but when the producers watched the scene they realized that viewers could see through Kong, especially as he passed the darker ledges, so it was cut. This clip has made its way into documentaries on the film but, more commonly, can be found in stills of the scene.
Premiered at the famed Radio City Music Hall in New York City.
Ranked #4 on the American Film Institute's list of the 10 greatest films in the genre "Fantasy" in June 2008.
Scenes cut over the years of release and re-release: Kong chewing on the natives of Skull Island; two scenes with Kong squashing one native each with his giant foot; the brontosaurus biting and throwing the men in the water; Kong putting a New Yorker in his mouth then throwing him down to the ground; a scene where Kong climbs a building, pulls out a sleeping woman with his giant hand, examines her, and when he finds it's not Ann Darrow, tosses her down to the sidewalk below; and, of course, Fay Wray's clothing being peeled off. The censor committee once stated that this was at least six minutes of editing. These scenes were all restored to the actual film in 1971. Of course, we still have yet to see the famous spider pit sequence, although in King Kong, we get an idea of what it was like. Also, the 2005 DVD release of the 1933 film has Peter Jackson's recreation of that scene.
Sensing a huge hit from industry buzz, MGM offered to buy the film outright from RKO for $1.072m (some $400,000 over its negative cost), figuring the little studio was reeling from losing $10+m in 1932. RKO was smart to decline the offer. The film smashed attendance records nationwide and ended up grossing $1.761m during its initial release. RKO would periodically, and extremely profitably, re-release the movie through the 1950s.
Special effects genius Willis H. O'Brien, who earlier used stop-motion animation of dinosaur models in The Lost World, had created several dinosaur models for his unfinished production Creation. Producer Merian C. Cooper sold the idea for King Kong to RKO executives in New York by showing them a test sequence using O'Brien's models. The executives were stunned, never having seen anything like it, and green-lighted production of King Kong . O'Brien also used many of his "Creation" models in King Kong , including the T-Rex and the pteranodon (giant flying creature).
The "Old Arabian Proverb" opening the film was actually written by director Merian C. Cooper.
The 18-inch model of King Kong was made from a metal mesh skeleton, a mixture of rubber and foam for the muscle structure and rabbit fur for his hair.
The 2005 DVD restoration further details the risqué liberties of a 1933 pre-code film release in two scenes. The first is when Ann is on the ship's deck while Charlie is peeling potatoes, and the second is where Denham is shooting some test footage of Ann ("Scream for your life, Ann, Scream!"). The thin material used for Ann's dress and gown in both scenes makes it obvious that Fay Wray is not wearing a bra; a wardrobe decision that may not have made it past the Breen Code the following year.
The 56-cm-high model of King Kong used in the film sold at auction in 2009 for about $203,000 (US). It was originally covered in cotton, rubber, liquid latex, and rabbit fur, but most of the covering has decomposed over the decades.
The character of Carl Denham was inspired by the film's director, Merian C. Cooper. Both Robert Armstrong, who portrayed Carl Denham and Merian C. Cooper died on consecutive days, 4/20/73 and 4/21/73.
The laserdisc edition of the film includes the first ever audio commentary.