The Hobbit sequel landed in the top spot for the third weekend, earning $29 million over the three day frame, and bringing its total to $190 million, below the last movie's $221 million total at this point last year. The movie's doing well though, despite its track to become the first Middle Earth film to earn less than the previous one, and is still on course to earn quite a bundle overseas. Meanwhile, Frozen had a very impressive 46% spike in its sixth weekend in release, coming in second with $28 million and raising its total to $248 million, on its way to outgross Gravity ($254 million) and Monsters University ($268 million) before the end of its run. Disney's definitely back in the groove with their Disney princesses, after the success of Tangled and now Frozen- obviously a movie that targets the young girl demographic can make just as much money as the young boy demo.
Anchorman 2 came in third with $20 million for the three day, which raises its total to $83 million and will pass the $85 million gross of the first film in the next couple of days. And in fourth was American Hustle with $19 million, another promising haul for a $60 million gross with plenty more to come after the Oscar nominations come in, which always guarantee a film a boost at the box office. Finally, The new opener Wolf of Wall Street is a bit of mixed bag, coming in fifth with $18 million and $34 million since opening on Christmas Day, but the movie received a pretty bad "C" Cinemascore, which indicates that audiences (at least initial ones) were expecting something very different. Still, with the holiday break and likely awards buzz the movie may hold on despite negative word of mouth.
Top 5:
- The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug- $29.9 million
- Frozen- $28.9 million
- Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues- $20.2 million
- American Hustle- $19.6 million
- The Wolf of Wall Street- $18.5 million
In various other openers this week, the biggest bomb was 47 Ronin, the $175 million Keanu Reeves starring epic, which earned just $9 million over the weekend, and Universal has already announced it will take a writedown for its failure. Ben Stiller's Secret Life of Walter Mitty earned $13 million over the three day frame and $25 million since Christmas, along with a "B+" from audiences, while the Robert DeNiro-Sylvester Stallone movie Grudge Match tanked, opening with just $7 million. Another bomb destined to delight people was the total failure of Justin Bieber's latest concert movie Believe, which took in $2 million, 93% less than the opening of his last one. And we're now in the time of holdovers for the next few weeks, as the studios save only their worst films for the January box office month, which usually belongs to the Oscar movies, as televised awards start rolling in. See you in 2014 everybody!
