Geek fact for today

King Kong cost more than $207m to make. That's a huge amount of money. But actually, the only reason movies sounds like they’re constantly getting more and more expensive is because of inflation.

The Elizabeth Taylor version of Cleopatra cost $45 million in 1963 (a low estimate). According to this handy purchasing-power calculator, that’s worth $270m in today’s money. Far more expensive than King Kong.

And King Kong isn't even close to the most expensive film ever made. At the moment, that title is actually held by Harry Potter and the goblet of fire. At $308m, it cost nearly 50% more than King Kong, and more than was spent making all three Lord of the Rings movies.

All of this, of course, has absolutely no effect on my desire to see the great big monkey film, which remains at peak.