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Box Office: 'Hobbit' Riding High; 'Annie,' 'Night at the Museum' in Close Race
by Rebecca Ford 12/20/2014 8:25am PDT
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is giving the holiday box office a much-needed boost this weekend, adding a stellar $16.5 million Friday on its way to the No. 1 spot for the weekend.
Peter Jackson's film, based on the work of J. R. R. Tolkien, should earn north of $86 million after opening Wednesday (about $54 million for the traditional three-day window), far above the original estimates of $75 million to $80 million. The New Line and MGM film will likely continue to do strong business in the coming holidays weeks as families have free time to head to the theaters. It earned an A- CinemaScore
Box-office comparisons to the previous Hobbit films won't be exactly parallel as the first two came out on Fridays. But the previous film, The Desolation of Smaug, earned $73.6 million in its debut weekend, and hit a final tally of $958.4 million worldwide. The first installment, An Unexpected Journey, opened in December 2012 to $84.6 million on its way to a grand total of $1 billion.
Read more 'The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies': Film Review
There's a heated race building for the No. 2 spot this weekend between the other two newcomers: Fox's Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb and Sony's musical Annie.
Fox's Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, directed by Shawn Levy, added $5.6 million Friday on its way to about $18 million for the weekend. The film, which garnered a B+ CinemaScore, is facing heavy competition in a crowded holiday box office, with so many films vying for families' attention, and so it won't reach the numbers earned by the previous two films. But December openings often have stronger multiples, so Night at the Museum could continue to see growth in the holiday weeks to come.
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian opened in May 2009 to a four-day debut of $70 million over Memorial Day weekend. (It earned $54.2 million in the traditional three-day window.) It went on to earn $413.1 million worldwide. The first Night at the Museum film debuted to $30.4 million when it opened in December 2006 on its way to a worldwide tally of $574.8 million.
In a rare bit of good news for the hack-embattled Sony, the remake Annie, starring Quvenzhane Wallis, earned a solid $5.3 million Friday and got a favorable A- CinemaScore. The film got a nice boost Friday from school outings to theaters, and if it can bring in family audiences over the weekend, it's looking at an estimated $17 million debut. (This is before the revised estimates...)
GOAT of his era......long live Prince.....God is alive....
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