NY- “King Kong” isn’t the king of the box office – yet.

Director Peter Jackson’s $207 million remake of the 1933 classic didn’t even break the $10 million mark in its first day in theaters.

Opening early Wednesday morning, “Kong” earned $9.7 million in 3,567 theaters nationwide – making it the 21st-best Wednesday opening.

“Spider-Man 2,” which holds the record for best Wednesday, made $40 million when it debuted in June 2004.

Universal Studios, “Kong’s” distributor, had no comment. But industry analysts expect business to pick up considerably over the weekend.

The grosses “are not up there with some of the lofty expectations, but the bulk of the audience will be coming out on Friday and Saturday,” said Gitesh Pandya, editor of boxofficeguru.com.

“Unlike some movies like the ‘The Lord of the Rings’ [trilogy], there’s not much of a built-in audience that needs to see it the first day. There’s tons of business ahead for ‘Kong.’ ”

“Titanic,” the top-grossing movie of all time with $1.8 billion in ticket sales worldwide, didn’t fare particularly well initially, either. It only took in $28.6 million in 2,674 screens during its opening weekend in December 1997.

Box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian said part of the blame for “Kong’s” less-than-record-breaking numbers is its lengthy running time – three hours and seven minutes.

“It is a long movie, and that limits the number of showings per day,” said Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations.

“But this is a movie that’s going to be around a while, and as the buzz builds, so will the audience.”