The weekend before Christmas is always an awkward one simply because people are all over the map in what they do, from last minute shopping to traveling and to parties with friends and family, as well as those that do early Christmas celebrations. We get a number of new films opening on Christmas Day itself to draw people in, so the films that open just before are trying to capture a little more gold.
And they did just that, though they had to face the dragon of The Desolation of Smaug, which added another $31 million to it coffers and brought its worldwide reach to just over $400 million for the second weekend it’s been out. While the film dropped a fair bit from its opening, it’s on par with the first film in terms of the level, though it’s still behind a bit domestically in revenue.
The return of Anchorman 2 after quite a few years away is solid overall and while its opening weekend is below the first, it’s not a fair comparison since the film also had its start on Wednesday, so it has a 5 day take of $40 million, which would have placed it first if it had all happened from Friday to Sunday. It did well enough to hit second place and pushed Frozen down a bit, but Frozen will do well since it’s really the only family entertainment out there, at least evidenced by the awful debut of Walking with Dinosaurs this weekend which brought in just $7 million.
The only movie we saw this weekend was American Hustle and it did quite well with its $19 million take, surpassing the directors previous film The Fighter a good percentage as well. It’ll likely have a decent life to it and we’re seeing predictions of it hitting $100 million by the time it exits the big screen. With a $40 million budget and plenty of positive buzz overall, it’s not a wide project but it’s one that will draw based on stars a fare degree and just the confidence of it all. On the flip side, the debut of Savings Mr. Banks didn’t go so well as it expanded from the limited run of the previous weekend as it brought in just $10 million domestically. It’s the kind of solid and enjoyable film, but one that’s difficult to get a mass audience to go out into the theaters to see.
| RANK | TITLE | DISTRIBUTOR NAME | WEEKEND REVENUE | CUME REVENUE | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| REVENUE | # OF LOCATIONS* | LOC AVG | ||||
| 1 | Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug, The | Warner Bros. | $31,455,000 | 3,928 | 8,007 | $127,500,417 |
| 2 | Anchorman 2 | Paramount | $26,776,000 | 3,507 | 7,635 | $40,000,000 |
| 3 | Frozen | Disney | $19,163,000 | 3,540 | 5,413 | $191,555,000 |
| 4 | American Hustle | Sony | $19,100,000 | 2,507 | 7,618 | $20,213,368 |
| 5 | Saving Mr. Banks | Disney | $9,321,000 | 2,110 | 4,417 | $9,947,000 |
| 6 | Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The | Lionsgate | $8,750,000 | 2,949 | 2,967 | $371,703,796 |
| 7 | Tyler Perry’s A Madea Christmas | Lionsgate | $8,510,000 | 2,194 | 3,878 | $28,280,277 |
| 8 | Walking With Dinosaurs | 20th Century Fox | $7,300,000 | 3,231 | 2,259 | $7,300,000 |
| 9 | Dhoom 3 | Yash Raj Films | $3,305,000 | 236 | 14,004 | $3,305,000 |
| 10 | Thor: The Dark World | Disney | $1,328,000 | 1,116 | 1,189 | $200,766,000 |
| 11 | Philomena | The Weinstein Company | $1,225,000 | 738 | 1,659 | $13,336,552 |
| 12 | Inside Llewyn Davis | CBS Films | $1,061,000 | 148 | 7,168 | $2,112,150 |