Original King Kong Returning to Theaters for First Time in More Than 60 Years

When it comes to movie monsters, it doesn’t get much bigger, figuratively or literally, than King Kong, with the 1933 original film returning to theaters nationwide on Sunday, March 15th, marking the film’s first theatrical screenings since 1956. Fathom Events and Turner Classic Movies is hosting the event on behalf of the TCM Big Screen Classics series, which will also include A League of Their Own, Airplane!, Psycho, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. You can head to Fathom Events’ official website to learn more about the screenings, which will be featured in more than 600 theaters.

The site describes the film, “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. But when Kong, a giant ape, sees Darrow, it is overcome with love — and eventually captured by the adventurers. Taken to New York and put on display, Kong breaks free and pursues Darrow through New York in one of the most famous scenes ever filmed.”

The upcoming event is sure to excite fans of the monstrous ape, but, luckily, fans won’t have to wait much longer to see the character grace the big screen again, as he will take center stage later this year when Godzilla vs. Kong hits theaters on November 11th.

In the early 2010s, Legendary Pictures began to develop a “MonsterVerse” of reboots featuring some of cinema’s most iconic creatures. The series launched with Godzilla in 2014, which served largely as a standalone adventure in an attempt to prove the concept of the big-budget revival of the characters. In 2017, Kong: Skull Island served as an origin story of the iconic ape, with a post-credits scene teasing the interconnected future of the franchise.

Godzilla returned for a big-screen bout in last year’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters, putting the beast head to head with some of its most iconic foes.

In 1962, King Kong vs. Godzilla saw the monsters collide for a classic tussle, though the spirit of those films was much lower in production value, with the upcoming Godzilla vs. Kong bringing a spectacle that is decades in the making, likely igniting joy in long-time fans of the characters.

The original 1933 King Kong comes to theaters on March 15th. Godzilla vs. Kong hits theaters on November 11th.

Will you be seeing the film on the big screen? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!