King Kong gobbles $48m from taxpayers

The giant ape whose tale of unlikely romance grossed more than US$500 million ($808 million) worldwide also had New Zealand taxpayers in the palm of his hand - to the tune of nearly $50 million.

It was confirmed yesterday that the final grant paid to the makers of Peter Jackson's King Kong by the Government's large budget screen production fund was $48.65 million.

The payout was based on qualifying expenditure of $389.22 million. This includes pre-production, travel, insurance as well as the costs of making the movie.

The Government tries to attract large- scale film projects to New Zealand through its production grant scheme, which offers a 12.5 per cent rebate on production expenditure of more than $15 million in New Zealand.

To qualify, total expenditure in New Zealand must represent more than 70 per cent of a production's total budget - unless expenditure in New Zealand exceeds $50 million.

Qualifying expenditure includes salaries, editing, music, sound, catering, construction and set design, travel and post-production and visual effects.

King Kong has been perceived in some quarters as a box-office failure because its opening weekend performance in the United States didn't live up to expectations.

But the movie chalked up impressive DVD sales and reportedly grossed US$547 million worldwide - clearly outstripping its budget.

Economic Development Minister Trevor Mallard said yesterday that this winter has been "one of the busiest" for the New Zealand film industry since The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Warner Bros' film 10,000 BC completed a six-week shoot in Wanaka last month, while there was another shoot in Queenstown for The Water Horse, he said.

Another film, Thirty Days of Night, will begin shooting at the end of this month in Auckland and later in Central Otago.

The minister's office said it isn't yet known if the makers of these films will apply for grants under the Government's large budget scheme.

The makers of Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, received a grant of $16.7 million, based on qualifying expenditure of $133.8 million.

An economic evaluation of the large budget screen production grant scheme has estimated its net impact is somewhere between a $33 million gain and $38 million loss.