<Tr> <Th> Box office </Th> <Td> $566.7 million </Td> </Tr> <P> Kong: Skull Island is a 2017 American monster film that is a reboot of the King Kong franchise and serves as the second film in Legendary's franchise MonsterVerse . The film stars an ensemble cast consisting of Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, John Goodman, Brie Larson, Jing Tian, Toby Kebbell, John Ortiz, Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, Shea Whigham, Thomas Mann, Terry Notary, and John C. Reilly . Kong follows a team of scientists and Vietnam War soldiers who travel to an uncharted island in the Pacific and encounter terrifying creatures and the mighty Kong . The film is directed by Jordan Vogt - Roberts and written by Dan Gilroy, Max Borenstein and Derek Connolly, from a story by John Gatins . </P> <P> Principal photography took place from October 2015 to March 2016 in Hawaii and various locations around Vietnam . Kong: Skull Island premiered on February 28, 2017, in London and was released in the United States on March 10, 2017, in 2D, 3D, IMAX 3D and in Dolby Cinemas . The film was a critical and commercial success, grossing over $566 million worldwide against its $185 million budget . </P> <P> In 1944, in the midst of World War II, two fighter pilots--American pilot Hank Marlow and Japanese pilot Gunpei Ikari--parachute onto an island in the South Pacific after a dogfight and engage in close combat, but the fight is interrupted by a behemoth ape . Twenty - nine years later, in 1973, U.S. government agent Bill Randa hires former British Special Air Service Captain James Conrad, a skilled tracker, to guide an expedition to map out an island known as Skull Island . Their military escort is the Sky Devils, a Vietnam War helicopter squadron led by Lieutenant Colonel Preston Packard and his subordinates, Major Jack Chapman and Captain Earl Cole . The group is joined by pacifist photojournalist Mason Weaver, who believes the expedition is a secret military operation . Upon arrival at Skull Island, Packard's men begin dropping explosives developed by seismologist Houston Brooks to map out the island . However, the air unit is sabotaged by the same ape from 1944, who kills a number of military personnel and scatters the survivors across the island . </P>

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