Dec. 18 (Bloomberg) -- ``King Kong,'' director Peter Jackson's remake of the 1933 classic, was the No. 1 film this weekend, taking in $50.1 million for Universal Pictures and meeting analysts' estimates.

The movie, which stars Naomi Watts and Jack Black, beat out Walt Disney Co.'s ``The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,'' which dropped to second place in its second week with $31.2 million.

``King Kong'' met the $50 million weekend estimate from box-office tracker BoxOfficeGuru.com, signaling the film is appealing to audiences amid competition from other fantasy films. ``Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'' and ``The Chronicles of Narnia'' also are giving an end-of-the-year boost to lagging box-office receipts. ``King Kong'' probably will attract audiences through the holiday season as word-of-mouth spreads, said BoxOfficeGuru.com editor Gitesh Pandya.

``It's still on its way to doing over $200 million in North America alone because the reviews are fantastic and the word of mouth from those who've seen it is electrifying,'' Pandya said. ``There's a lot more money in the weeks ahead.''

Movie attendance, based on tickets sold, probably will fall 6.2 percent this year to 1.42 billion, the third straight annual decline, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Box-office receipts will probably drop 4.3 percent to $9 billion from last year's record $9.4 billion.

$207 Million to Make

The weekend's third-most profitable film was News Corp.'s ``The Family Stone,'' a comedy which took in $12.7 million in its first week, followed by ``Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'' with $5.9 million.

``King Kong,'' starring Watts as the actress who becomes the great ape's obsession, opened Dec. 14 with $16.1 million in sales for the first two days, less than analysts expected.

The film cost an estimated $207 million to make, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com and IMDB.com, which both track box-office sales and movie budgets.

Time Warner Inc. leads the box office this year with more than $1.82 billion in ticket sales as of Dec. 11, according to Nielsen EDI. News Corp. was No. 2 with $1.33 billion.

`The Family Stone'

``Narnia'' tells the story of four siblings who are sent to a professor's country estate to escape the World War II bombing of London. While playing hide-and-seek, the youngest child, Lucy, discovers a wardrobe that leads to a magical place of beasts, dwarfs and giants.

Third place's ``The Family Stone'' is about a man who brings his girlfriend home for the holidays to meet his Bohemian family. It stars Dermot Mulroney, Diane Keaton, Claire Danes and Sarah Jessica Parker.

In ``Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,'' from Time Warner, young Potter tests his magic skills in a tournament against the top students from two other schools. The movie has earned $253 million in five weeks of release.

Time Warner's political thriller ``Syriana'' dropped to fifth place in its fourth week of release with $5.5 million. The film stars George Clooney as U.S. Central Intelligence Agency official who is caught up in back-room dealings between oil companies and governments.

`Walk the Line'

News Corp.'s ``Walk the Line,'' about the life of country- music singer Johnny Cash, fell to sixth from fourth with $3.6 million. The movie has made $82.5 million in five weeks of release.

``Yours, Mine & Ours,'' from Sony Corp. and New York-based Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures, took in $3.4 million, dropping to seventh place.

Playing in limited release, ``Brokeback Mountain'' from General Electric Co.'s Universal, finished in eighth place. It took in $2.4 playing in 69 theaters. Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal play cowboys who try to maintain a secret love affair. The film averaged $34,194 per theater over the weekend, the most of any film.

``Just Friends,'' from Time Warner's New Line Cinema, fell to ninth from seventh with $1.9 million in sales. New York- based Viacom's ``Aeon Flux'' fell to 10th from sixth with $1.7 million.

Sales

Sales for the top 12 films this weekend rose 22 percent to $121 million from a year earlier, according to Encino, California-based Exhibitor Relations.

For the top 10 movies, General Electric had the largest market share this weekend with ticket sales of $52.6 million, followed by Disney with $31.2 million, News Corp. with $16.3 million, Time Warner with $13.6 million, and Viacom with $5.1 million.

The following chart has figures provided by studios to Exhibitor Relations. The weekend figures were based on actual grosses from Dec. 16 through yesterday.

                        Rev   Movie   Wks  Avg/    Pct   Total
                      ($Mln) Screens Out Screen    Chg  ($Mln)
1. King Kong          $50.1   3,568   1  $14,055   --    $66.2
2. Narnia              31.2   3,680   2    8,474   -52%  112.5
3. Family Stone        12.7   2,466   1    5,160   --     12.7
4. Harry Potter         5.9   3,185   5    1,854   -42%  252.6
5. Syriana              5.7   1,775   4    3,079   -53%   22.3
6. Walk the Line        3.6   2,664   5    1,361   -37%   82.5
7. Yours, Mine          3.4   2,723   4    1,254   -32%   45.1
8. Brokeback Mountain   2.4      69   2   34,194   331%    3.3
9. Just Friends         1.9   1,882   4    1,036   -49%   29.4
10. Aeon Flux           1.7   2,058   3      814   -63%   23.1
T*

To contact the reporter on this story:
Michael White in Los Angeles at 
mwhite8@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: December 18, 2005 16:18 EST