The unstoppable Frozen returned to #1 this weekend with $20 million, taking it just $3 million shy of $300 million, to become Disney's second biggest animated hit of all time, behind only The Lion King. The movie's performance has been pretty astounding, as it will almost surely continue to chug along, with awards success coming up and no other family film on the horizon. In second was Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones (above), following the recent trend of releasing horror films in January, which took in $18.2 million, the lowest ever debut for a Paranormal Activity movie. It also received a dismal C- from audiences, but given the fact that these movies are so cheap, pretty much all of them are profitable in the end, no matter how bad.
In third was The Hobbit, which took a steep drop with $16 million, amassing $229 million total, and unlikely to cross $300, making it the first Peter Jackson Middle Earth movie not to do so. The controversy-ridden Wolf of Wall Street came in at #4 with $13 million, which is actually a pretty decent hold from last week, considering its bad Cinemascore. It could be that the headlines have helped spark curiosity towards it, or that it's attracting the right crowd now, with people who know what to expect going in. The total so far is $63 million, while American Hustle is doing even better, right behind it this weekend but already with $88 million and guaranteed to cross $100 in the next week (and that's before its possible victory at the Golden Globes).
Top 5
- Frozen- $20.7 million
- Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones- $18.2 million
- The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug- $16.3 million
- The Wolf of Wall Street- $13.4 million
- American Hustle- $13.2 million
In other holdovers, Anchorman 2 pulled in $11 million this weekend for a total of $109 million so far, one of the big comedy successes of the year, and Catching Fire has now made $407 million at the domestic box office and is certain to beat Iron Man 3's $409 million total to be the #1 movie of the year (incidentally, the first time that spot's been held by a movie starring a woman since the 1960's!). Next weekend it's The Legend of Hercules, but January continues to be a dead month for any new films, with the Oscar movies in wide and limited release continuing to kick around and televised awards season about to start off with the Golden Globes on the 12th. See you then!
