The final installment of The Hobbit series came in strong this week, earning over $56 million from Friday to Sunday, while bringing in $90 million since opening on Wednesday. Battle of the Five Armies did however, drop 23% from the last film's opening, which itself was off from the first one. Frankly, the reason for this is probably just fatigue, as this trilogy has stretched a 300-page book out as long as it possibly can, and each film was slightly worse reviewed than the former. It's certainly no Lord of the Rings accomplishment.
Meanwhile, other new releases over the weekend were the dreadfully reviewed family films Annie and Night at the Museum 3. The third Night at the Museum movie is coming out five years after the second, and it's fair to say interest has definitely waned, as it earned just $17 million over the weekend. Annie was right behind it at $16 million, but the movie has just been slaughtered by some of the worst reviews of the year, which had to have cut into its box office some. The rest of the top five was filled out by Exodus and the Hunger Games, but both will likely fall out by next week with Christmas releases Into the Woods, The Gambler and Unbroken opening wide.
Top 5:
- The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies- $56.2 million
- Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb- $17.3 million
- Annie- $16.3 million
- Exodus: Gods and Kings- $8.1 million
- The Hunger Games: Mockingjay- Part 1- $7.8 million
In limited release, Wild expanded to 1,000 screens and made its way to No. 6, earning $4 million, so that will continue to do well as an awards hopeful. More new releases all coming this week (sans The Interview of course), as the Christmas movie season rolls on- traditionally the last two weeks of December are huge at the box office, since everyone's on vacation. We'll have to see what movies are going to benefit from all that time off. Tim Burton's Big Eyes will now be schduled for a wide release to take The Interview's place after Sony canceled the film, so we'll see how that plays out. Tune in next week for the first look at the holiday box office. See you then!
