I'd say that articulation sets him apart, such as the fact you can pose him on all fours. There's loads of gorilla toys out there, but how many look good or are articulated like he is? The Playmates Kongs are all crappy, ugly AND overpriced on the secondary market now and the others that come to mind are vintage and therefore not so pretty (Big Jim gorilla), robits (Primals, that guy from Spawn), or are Mattel (Grodd/Mallah/Gygor).

That's not to say I'm endorsing Kong, I'm not rushing to buy him, but there isn't a glut of articulated gorilla toys out there keeping me away either.

I probably will nab him in a sale but I don't see any real reason to pay full price for him.

He's pretty great, easily the best Kong toy out there imo. However the MezCo toys of the Jackson movie were pretty good. Not sure how much they go for on the after-market, I remember them being clearanced pretty heavily after the movie disappointed.

The movie disappointed? It made over a half a billion dollars!

I suppose kids weren't that into the toys, but it was the Playmates stuff that got clearanced. Mezco only made one 18" Kong that, to be fair, was awesome. I never saw it on clearance though.

Disappointment relates to expectation and budget. They expected it to do better than it did. $207mil budget before prints and marketing(which were at least $75mil) needs a worldwide gross of $564mil(at least, more if the marketing cost more) to break even(because theaters take half). It had a worldwide gross of ~$550mil. It didn't hit profit until video.

So it wasn't a flop, and they didn't lose money, but studios don't spend $200mil+ on a movie with the expectation that it won't hit profit until home video. Hence 'disappointment.' You notice there hasn't been a sequel?

Also I saw the MezCo stuff on clearance at Spencer's for a long time.

I can't argue the funds but theatres take a lot less than half, they really are just a fast food joint that shows movies. That is why all the popcorn and dogs and stuff cost so much because that is where they make most of their money.

I suppose I was equating disappointment with flop. But I don't think that's why the toys didn't sell. The real problem was that most of the Playmates stuff was sub-par.

Well again, the Mezco "stuff" amounted to one figure. I wish I'd seen it on clearance, I would have snapped it up.

Sorry, but this is categorically not true and I'm not sure what you're basing that belief on. The split is roughly 50/50, it's a fairly well-known data point. For a while(the early 2000s) they split it on a sliding scale with the studio getting 90% the first week while the theater got 10%, then 80/20, 70/30 etc but it always ended up being around 50/50 when it was all said and done.

However the past half decade or so they switched back to 50/50 parity from the first weekend because the studios were front loading their releases and shortening the home video release window. The food and drink sales are significant and drive a lot of the profit but you could make the same argument with the studios and dvd/tv sales.


As for the MezCo King Kong on clearance, I remember specifically it being on clearance because I heavily considered getting one. But then I figured I didn't have the room. I can still remember the Spencer's display with the clearance prices(it was $30). As for "one figure" I remember there being several variants.

From doing a degree in Film.

I have a degree in Cinema/Television from USC myself, and worked in the industry for several years. Perhaps the split is different in the UK, although I doubt it.

EDIT: here's a recent article laying out the numbers: http://io9.com/5747305/how-much-mone...-be-profitable

I only link it because I have had this argument before and the other person always links some blog from 2002 explaining the situation as it was then(and then only paying attention to the first week split), when it has changed since.