After a very disappointing start in December, Hollywood studios posted a rare win thanks to two solid openers, which aided by strong showings by the top holdovers, were responsible for an estimated 6.6% increase over the same weekend last year when The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug held sway for the third consecutive week as it earned $29 million. This year the final Hobbit film, The Battle of the Five Armies, earned an estimated $41.4 million in its second frame to lead the box office charge.The Battle of the Five Armies, which posted a solid $13.1 million on Christmas Day, brought its twelve-day domestic total to $168.5 million. It now appears that Peter Jackson’s final Hobbit movie will make it past the $300 million barrier. The film has now earned $405 million overseas for a worldwide total of $573 million, and it appears that The Battle of the Five Armies has an excellent chance to join the "billion dollar club" along with the first Hobbit film, An Unexpected Journey ($1.017 billion). The second Hobbit film, The Desolation of Smaug, earned just $700 million, so it appears that Jackson’s trilogy will end on a high note.
Second place went to Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken, a dramatization of the life of an American Olympian, who endured the horrors of World War II including a brutal stretch in a Japanese prison camp. Based on popular biographer Lauren (Sea Biscuit) Hillenbrand’s book about the wartime exploits of Louis Zamperini, the $65 million Unbroken is Jolie’s sophomore directorial effort. With a 3-day total of $31.7 million and a $47.3 million 4-day total (the film opened on Christmas Day), Unbroken managed one of the biggest debuts ever for a World War II drama, an opening that was way above analysts’ expectations. With a solid "A-" CinemaScore from opening weekend audiences that skewed a bit female (52%) and a lot older (72% over 25), Unbroken appears to be poised for a solid domestic run.
Close behind was Disney’s adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s 1987 musical fairy tale deconstruction Into the Woods, which earned an estimated $31 million over three days and $46.1 for 4, a strong showing for a musical. The film’s mediocre "B" CinemaScore could be a problem going forward, but the $60 million production is off to strong start with a diverse audience that included 51% adults, 38% families, and 11% teens.
Shawn Levy’s Night at the Museum 3: Secret of the Tomb rebounded a bit from its disappointing opening as it boosted its debut total by 20.5% as it earned $20.6 million over the family-viewing friendly post-Christmas weekend. The same could be said to a lesser extent for the musical remake Annie, which rebounded from its disappointing debut to earn an estimated $16.6 million, a 4.7% increase over its opening weekend gross.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay-Part 1 also rebounded strongly, posting a 26.9% gain as it added $10 million to pass the $300 million dollar mark as it brought its domestic total to $306.7 million. Thanks to this holiday-fueled turnaround, it now appears that Mockingjay does have a good chance to pass Guardians of the Galaxy ($332 million) and become the highest-grossing film of 2014 in the domestic market, though The Battle of The Five Armies could end up in that conversation as well.
| Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): December 26-28, 2014 | ||||||
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| Film | Weekend Gross | Screens | Avg./ Screen | Total Gross | Wk# |
| 1 | The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies | $41,420,000 | 3,875 | $10,689 | $168,522,000 | 2 |
| 2 | Unbroken | $31,748,000 | 3,131 | $10,140 | $47,341,000 | 1 |
| 3 | Into the Woods | $31,021,000 | 2,440 | $12,714 | $46,105,000 | 1 |
| 4 | Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb | $20,600,000 | 3,914 | $5,263 | $55,307,000 | 2 |
| 5 | Annie | $16,600,000 | 3,197 | $5,192 | $45,835,000 | 2 |
| 6 | The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 | $10,000,000 | 2,793 | $3,580 | $306,656,000 | 6 |
| 7 | The Gambler | $9,300,000 | 2,478 | $3,753 | $14,300,000 | 1 |
| 8 | The Imitation Game | $7,930,000 | 747 | $10,616 | $14,631,000 | 5 |
| 9 | Exodus: Gods and Kings | $6,750,000 | 3,002 | $2,249 | $52,517,000 | 3 |
| 10 | Wild | $5,415,000 | 1,285 | $4,214 | $16,364,000 | 4 |
Seventh place went to The Gambler, which stars Mark Wahlberg in a remake of a 1970s film starring James Caan. Why this film was released over the Christmas weekend remains a puzzle--this downbeat character study is hardly the typical uplifting holiday fare--but director Rupert Wyatt, who helped revive the Planet of the Apes franchise, should be congratulated for attempting something very different and much more personal, though why he didn’t go with an original story rather than remaking what was a very flawed film in the first place is a bit puzzling. Still the film’s $14.3 debut in the face of major competition indicates that it might have done even better had it been released on a different weekend. Wyatt’s remake appealed primarily to older viewers (81% over 25).
The Weinstein Company took its Oscar hopeful, The Imitation Game, from 34 theaters to 747 outlets, and the biographical film starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the genius mathematician Alan Turing, who broke the Nazi Enigma code, posted one of the best per-theater averages in the top ten ($10,616).
Ridley Scott’s Biblical epic Exodus: Gods and Kings continues to earn “didley squat.” In its third weekend the $140 million film dropped 16.7% as it shed theaters. In contrast the Oscar hopeful Wild posted a 31.6% gain as it added $5.4 million.
Two other films opened this weekend. Tim Burton’s art fraud biopic Big Eyes finished at #15, as it earned $2.9 million for 1307 theaters for just a $2,285 average. Once again, opening Big Eyes in more than a 1000 theaters over the Christmas weekend appears to be a puzzling decision. The film would likely have received more critical and audience attention during a less crowded weekend (say the first weekend in December when there were no new films). Still with a production cost of just $10 million, Big Eyes should have a chance at profitability, especially in actress Amy Adams gets a well-deserved Oscar nod.
The other new film was the controversial North Korean leader assassination comedy The Interview, which was originally supposed to open wide over the Christmas weekend before Sony, which suffered an embarrassing and costly cyberattack from those upset with the film (see "Sony Hack Reveals Disney Spider-Man Discussions"). Sony released The Interview to 331 theaters and it earned a very modest $1.8 million, a solid $5,471 per-venue, which would likely have been much higher if Sony had torpedoed those theater owners by releasing the film on Video-on-Demand a full 24 hours before it hit theaters.
This weekend also saw successful limited debuts for Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper, the Martin Luther King biopic Selma, both of which will go wide in January and will now be eligible for Oscar consideration in March.
Be sure to check back here next week to check out the results of the first weekend of 2015. It appears the studios are “taking a breather” by releasing only the horror film sequel, The Woman in Black 2 next week, but the coming final week of the holidays will be crucial for the major films that are in the theaters now.
--Tom Flinn
