King of Kong opens in eight more cities today

17 Comments by Kyle Orland Aug 24th 2007 1:55PM
Filed under: Arcade, Culture, Retro, Competitive Gaming

We know we probably sound like a broken record with our repeated praise-singing for the fabulous King of Kong, but with good game-based movies being rarer than a perfect game of Pac-Man, we feel this effort needs all the support it can get. The movie opens in eight more cities today, including major metro areas like Chicago, San Francisco, Boston and Washington, DC.

King of Kong's limited five-screen opening last weekend brought in a respectable $10,000 per screen, just slightly less than box office leader Superbad. Sure, Superbad was on roughly 590 times as many screens, but still, it's tailing Superbad!

The movie is currently holding at an incredible 98 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and a respectable 83 out of 100 on MetaCritic. What more do you need? Get some tickets already!

Tags: donkeykong, kingofkong, movie, nintendo

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(Page 1) Reader Comments

JL: Aug 24th 2007; 2:35PM

Does Joystiq have money staked in the success of this movie? This is like the 5th post for this indie flick I've seen.

REUYL: Aug 24th 2007; 2:52PM

It's a movie about gaming.

This is a gaming website.

Yeah.

JL: Aug 24th 2007; 2:57PM

If you read Joystiq daily you have seen this over and over, dickweed. I was simply commenting about the frequency of posts about this movie.

copa: Aug 24th 2007; 3:08PM

Realistically, it's probably the first good motion picture about or based on videogames.

So, yeah, it's kind of a big deal, and I'm glad that Joystiq is pimping it.

JL: Aug 24th 2007; 4:33PM

"Realistically, it's probably the first good motion picture about or based on videogames.

So, yeah, it's kind of a big deal, and I'm glad that Joystiq is pimping it."

I like playing games.
I like watching movies.
I hate games that are based on movies.
I hate movies that are based on games.

-My opinion. Thanks for yours though!

DangerMouse: Aug 24th 2007; 6:02PM

Don't get chumpatized, plz. Thanks.

Hashbrown_Hunter: Aug 24th 2007; 2:37PM

I may want to check it out. It's in LA right?

shoeshine: Aug 24th 2007; 3:16PM

Shame they're going to ruin this great documentary by making a movie based on it. Success shows people's true colors, doesn't it?

Neebs: Aug 24th 2007; 3:19PM

Note to self: When king of the world, make things come to Virginia Beach. End note.

waffle: Aug 24th 2007; 3:29PM

and considering it's Friday, the day most movies come out, it makes sense that Joystiq would mention that this is getting released into more theaters.

Not only that, but this film is brilliant. If I had a forum like this i'd bring it up every chance I could too.

Do yourself a favor and go see this movie if you have the chance. believe the hype.

Brymo: Aug 24th 2007; 4:03PM

LOVED THIS!

Everyone should see it! I saw it in Seattle with Steve, had a Q&A.

Oh and Billy is a bastard.

Jeff: Aug 24th 2007; 4:48PM

I managed to go to a screening of it in Chicago on Tuesday. Great movie and definitely worth seeing.

You can check out my impressions at my site here:

http://alinktothefuture.com/2007/08/23/the-lessons-of-king-of-kong/

EMaster: Aug 24th 2007; 5:08PM

The Toronto Film festival will be here soon. I wonder if they will show this movie there?

Paviel: Aug 24th 2007; 5:17PM

It is pretty easy to hate movies based on video games, since so few of them have been good.

That said, this one is looking more and more like one of those few.

BPM: Aug 24th 2007; 5:21PM

Me am wanting Phoenix, AZ screening! Me am throw barrel until happy!

Great White Snark: Aug 24th 2007; 6:08PM

Saw the sneak preview last night in San Francisco, and it more than lives up to the hype. It's Rocky, with video games.

http://www.greatwhitesnark.com/2007/08/24/geek-movie-goodness-king-of-kong-a-fistful-of-quarters/

mrbigwig: Sep 2nd 2007; 1:51AM

Most viewers of this tale don't have a clue what the truth of the matter is.
"It is easier to convince people about the reality of a big lie rather then a smaller one." Hitler

Everyone is an expert after watching this movie. Again I say you are all clueless and really need to notice the way it was cut to get the intense emotional reaction. The truth was left on the cutting room floor for a pop culture fetish film. dwayne

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