Peter Jackson's ‘The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies’ opens to a massive $90.6 million in North America, while new entries ‘Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb’ and ‘Annie’ both suffer soft starts heading into the year-end holidays.
Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies opened to a massive $90.6 million in North America, while new entries Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb and Annie both suffered soft starts heading into the year-end holidays.
The final entry in the Hobbit saga, from New Line and MGM, soared in its five-day domestic debut, which included a weekend tally of $56.2 million. 3D showings accounted for nearly 50 percent of the overall gross, with IMAX theaters contributing $13.6 million, the best of any Hobbit or The Lord of the Ring title. The Hobbit dominated overseas as well, grossing another $105.5 million for a 12-day international total of $265 million and early worldwide haul of $355.6 million.
In comparison, The Desolation of Smaug launched to $73.6 million last year, while An Unexpected Journey opened to $84.6 million in 2012.
In second place, Fox’s Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, reteaming director Shawn Levy and Ben Stiller, opened to $17.3 million, a franchise low. Costing $127 million to produce, the movie rolled out in its first 28 markets overseas, earning $10.8 million for a global tally of $28.1 million.
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian debuted to $70 million over the long Memorial Day weekend in 2009. The first Night at the Museum film debuted to $30.4 million when it opened in December 2006.
Sony’s Annie came in third place with a $16.3 million debut. The adaptation of the iconic Broadway musical stars Quvenzhane Wallis and Jamie Foxx and was produced by Will Smith and Jay-Z with a budget of $65 million.
Fox and Chernin Entertainment's Exodus: Gods and Kings fell to fourth place in its second weekend with $8.1 million for a domestic total of $38.9 million. Ridley Scott directed the biblical epic, which stars Christian Bale as Moses. Internationally, Exodus has now grossed $61.9 million for a worldwide total of $100.8 million.
In fifth place, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay -- Part 1 made $7.8 million for distributor Lionsgate for a domestic total of $289.2 million. Overseas, the YA adaptation has made $350.5 million to date for a worldwide tally of $639.7 million.
Fox Searchlight’s Wild, starring Reese Witherspoon, expanded nationwide over the weekend, climbing up the chart to number six with $4.2 million for an early domestic total of $7.2 million.
Chris Rock's comedy Top Five landed in seventh place for the weekend, taking in $3.57 million for Paramount for a total of $12.5 million.
Disney's Marvel-inspired Big Hero 6 took eighth place, adding $3.56 million to its domestic tally for a total of $190.4 million. Internationally, Big Hero 6 has made $81.6 million to date, pushing the film’s worldwide total to $272 million.
DreamWorks Animation’s Penguins of Madagascar came in ninth place, earning $3.5 million in its fourth week at the box office for a domestic total of $64.2 million. Overseas, Penguins earned an additional $18.6 million for an international total of $134.6 million and worldwide tally of $198.8 million.
Rounding up the list at number 10 is Bollywood dramedy PK, which made $3.46 million for its U.S. debut, the biggest opening for any Bollywood feature to date. Distributed by Disney’s UTV, PK stars Aamir Khan (Dhoom 3) and is directed by Rajkumar Hirani. The story sees Khan as an alien who lands in the Rajasthan desert with a mission to study life on Earth. When the device that allows him to communicate with his spaceship is stolen, he sets out to find it while attempting to blend in.
Box office numbers were obtained on boxofficemojo.com.
Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.
