Despite a challenge from two formidable newcomers, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies once again stood at the summit of the box office’s lonely mountain, presumably hurling taunts down at the movies below.
The third Hobbit movie pillaged moviegoers for an estimated $41.4 million in the days following Christmas, bringing its estimated total take to a very respectable (if still less than dragon-sized) $168.5 million. Looks like ol’ Bilbo Baggins will cart a tidy nest egg back to Bag End.
Unbroken and Into the Woods, those two challengers, both with Oscar aspirations, never seriously pushed The Battle of the Five Armiesfor box office supremacy. But they did engage in a healthy skirmish with each other. Unbroken, an Angelina Jolie-helmed biopic based on the incredible life of Louis Zamperini, squeaked by the star-studded musical Into the Woods for second place, earning $31.7 million to Woods’ $31 mil. Unbroken also beat all comers (including Battle of the Five Armies) on Christmas Day, pulling $15.6 million out of its stocking. That’s the third-highest Christmas take ever, by the way, just behind Sherlock Holmes and Les Misérables. In four days, Unbroken has collected $47.3 million.
Not to be completely outdone, Into the Woods logged the fourth-highest Christmas opening ever with $15.1 million, putting its four-day haul to $46.1 mil. And it did it with 691 fewer theaters than Unbroken.
Those two shiny-new flicks led a slew of newcomers into theaters. Nine films debuted last week (many in very narrow release), though only those two finished inside the Top Five. The Gambler was the best of the rest, financially speaking, collecting $9.3 million (which, I’m guessing, its makers later lost on an ill-advised blackjack bet). Tim Burton’s Big Eyes earned nearly $3 million, and The Interview—the much-discussed but barely-seen comedy starring Seth Rogen and James Franco—was eventually shown in about 331 theaters and earned $1.8 million. Take that, North Korea. We Americans have every right to show whatever horrible movies we want. (Our reviews of Big Eyesand The Interview will be available sometime tomorrow.)
Two family-focused holdovers, Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb and Annie, rounded out the Top Five. Secret of the Tomb buried $20.6 million over Christmas weekend, while Annie danced its way to $16.1 million.
Final figures update: 1. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, $40.9 million; 2. Into the Woods, $31.1 million; 3. Unbroken, $30.6 million; 4. Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, $20.2 million; 5. Annie, $16.5 million.
Recent Comments