King Kong‘s weekend tallies suffered a sobering 58% drop from last weekend, which is a pretty strong indication that people are not exactly over-the-moon about it, and yet Peter Jackson’s monkey movie edged out The Chronicles of Narnia for the four-day holiday weekend (12.23 through 12.26) with a $31.4 million haul vs. Narnia‘s $30.1 million. Narnia opened on 12.9 (five days ahead of Kong‘s 12.14 debut) and has earned a total of $163.5 million to Kong‘s $118.7 million cume. Variety‘s Ben Fritz has written that “one of the few things that can safely be said is that Narnia has momentum on its side” since the “the C.S. Lewis adaptation fell just 36% compared with last weekend, while Kong dropped 58%.” Kong “had the stronger Christmas day with $8.7 million compared with Narnia‘s $7.3 million…pics were virtually even Friday and Saturday,” reported Fritz. He added that “exhibs called [the long Xmas weekend] one of the toughest-to-read frames they’ve ever seen.”