Jack Matthews writes: In assessing this year's Oscar race last month, I wrote that if Peter Jackson's King Kong turns out as well as his three Lord of the Rings movies, you can count it in as a Best Picture nominee. I should have been more optimistic. Now that I've seen it, the question is whether it can top 1997's Titanic as the highest-grossing movie of all time. The short answer is, probably not. "Titanic's" box-office performance is in an orbit of its own. It sold US$600.8mil worth of tickets at home - US$140mil more than No 2 Star Wars - and US$1.8biln worldwide, more than US$700mil better than the last Lord of the Rings episode. But Kong is the first film to come along in years with at least a shot at the No 1 spot. [More]