King Kong is not the dominant beast people either expected or hoped for. Crowd pleasers and family movies tend to do well over the holidays.
People want to be inspired by the movies, they want to have a cathartic experience and they want to laugh and they crave that and when its not there they notice that absence and that's what they talk about instead of going to the movies,
Walk the Line' has done very well so far but there are still a lot of people haven't seen it. A Best Picture nomination could increase the turnout.