A dragon and too much organization in those orks (hobgoblin) but it rules the boxoffice!
Weekend Report: 'Hobbit' Emerges Victorious in Final Box Office 'Battle'
by Ray Subers -- December 21, 2014
Moviegoers stormed theaters this weekend to spend "one last time" in Middle Earth.
Including Wednesday and Thursday ticket sales, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies has already earned over $90 million, which puts it on track to ultimately surpass its predecessor (The Desolation of Smaug).
Meanwhile, Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb and Annie (2014) opened at essentially the same level; that's quite good for the moderately-budgeted musical, but not-so-great for the big-budget fantasy sequel.
Over the three-day weekend, the final chapter in the Hobbit trilogy dominated with an estimated $56.2 million. That's the lowest opening weekend in the franchise so far, though it's also the first and only movie to open on a Wednesday.
A better comparison can be drawn to the Lord of the Rings movies, all of which opened on a Wednesday. The movie's $90.6 million five-day total is 11 percent lower than The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers ($102 million), which opened around this same time back in 2002. While that may seem a bit disappointing for a finale with the addition of 3D/IMAX ticket pricing, it's par for the course for the Hobbit movies, which have all earned less than The Lord of the Rings at the domestic box office.
This opening does look quite good when projecting it out over the long run, which is critical for December releases. If it plays like the last two movies in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, it will ultimately earn at least $270 million, which would put it ahead of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.
Franchise titles have had a tough time this year in the U.S.: recently, Dumb and Dumber To, Horrible Bosses 2, Penguins of Madagascar and Mockingjay all earned significantly less than their predecessors. The Battle of the Five Armies avoided that fate for a number of reasons.
First—and perhaps most important—is the fact that Peter Jackson's Middle Earth movies have a very large, very dedicated fan base. After the first Hobbit movie received a lukewarm response, the sequel was only off 15 percent. One could argue that drop essentially accounted for all of the casual fans, leaving $258 million worth of dedicated patrons who weren't going to skip the final chapter.
Producers also made a smart choice about where to end the second movie. Instead of doing away with the villainous dragon Smaug at the end of that movie—where it made the most sense, story-wise—that sequence was moved to the beginning of the third movie. Without that move, the third outing would have existed entirely to wrap up secondary plot threads, which would have made it much easier to skip.
It's also significant that they changed the subtitle from There and Back Again to The Battle of the Five Armies. Instead of marketing this as another whimsical adventure, it was clear from the start that this was going to be a war movie with large-scale chaos on par with popular sequences in Peter Jackson's last two Lord of the Rings movies.
Finally, the marketing campaign emphasized that this was the final installment: the phrase "one last time" was used in nearly every piece of advertising. This successfully conveyed the message that this was the final opportunity to visit Middle Earth on the big screen, which surely helped convince some people who were wary about dropping $12 on another one of these movies.
The audience for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies was 60 percent male and 60 percent over the age of 25. They awarded the movie an "A-" CinemaScore, which is pretty standard for the Hobbit trilogy. IMAX shows accounted for $13.6 million—a new record for December—while 3D shows represented 49 percent of ticket sales.
Playing at 3,785 locations, Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb opened to an estimated $17.3 million this weekend.
That's a fraction of the last movie's $54.2 million debut, though that did open over Memorial Day weekend (when the opening frame is much more significant). A better comparison is the first Night at the Museum, which earned $30.4 million on the same weekend back in 2006.
More recent comparisons are Fox three-quels The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, which opened to $24 million and $23.2 million, respectively. If the final Night at the Museum follows the same pattern as those movies, it will wind up with less than $100 million total.
The second Night at the Museum movie earned 29 percent less than the first, which suggested that the novelty of the original movie had quickly worn off. Waiting five-and-a-half years until the next installment—and doing little to differentiate the movie, aside from an obligatory location shift—isn't really a great approach. It also doesn't help that Ben Stiller's brand has taken a bit of a hit in recent years: his last four live-action movies are Little Fockers, Tower Heist, The Watch and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, none of which are held in high esteem.
According to 20th Century Fox, the movie's audience was 51 percent male and 54 percent under the age of 25. They awarded the movie a "B+" CinemaScore, which is on par with the last installment in the franchise.
Sony/Columbia's remake of Annie (2014) opened to $16.3 million at 3,116 locations this weekend. That ranks eighth all-time among movie musicals—just behind Muppets Most Wanted. Among family-friendly pre-Christmas releases, Annie opened well above movies like Saving Mr. Banks and Cheaper by the Dozen 2, and was essentially on par with Yogi Bear ($16.4 million).
The movie's audience was primarily families (76 percent), and also skews heavily female (70 percent). While reviews are horrible, word-of-mouth seems more positive: the movie received an "A-" CinemaScore. Even with tough competition from Into the Woods coming up, Annie should play well through the holiday season. It will almost certainly top $80 million, and could even reach $100 million.
Exodus: Gods and Kings was given the benefit of the doubt coming off a so-so opening weekend; it was a December release, after all, and would likely hold up well through the holiday. After its second weekend, though, it's safe to call this a flop.
Ridley Scott's Biblical epic plummeted 67 percent to an estimated $8.1 million; that drop is on par with The Day the Earth Stood Still and The Golden Compass (68 percent and 66 percent, respectively), which are the most front-loaded December releases in recent memory. Exodus was plagued by poor reviews and mixed word-of-mouth, and faced a ton of tough competition this weekend (specifically from The Hobbit). It's now earned $38.9 million, and is going to struggle to reach $70 million total.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 eased 39 percent to an estimated $7.75 million. Through its fifth weekend, the penultimate chapter in the franchise has grossed $289.2 million, and remains on track to wrap up with over $330 million (which means it will essentially tie Guardians of the Galaxy).
After two weeks in limited release, Wild (2014) expanded to 1,061 theaters this weekend. It took in $4.15 million, which is a strong result for a platform release at this time of year. The release pattern on this is nearly identical to fellow Fox Searchlight movie Black Swan, though Wild is consistently earning less than half as much as Swan; if it continues to follow this pattern, it could wind up in the $40 to $50 million range.
Top Five expanded to 1,307 locations, but was off 48 percent anyway. The Chris Rock comedy added $3.57 million to bring its total to $12.5 million; even with the holidays coming up, it would be surprising if this passed $30 million.
Bollywood comedy P.K. cracked the Top 10 this weekend with an impressive $3.46 million debut. That's on par with Dhoom 3, which opened to $3.4 million on this same weekend last year (and also starred Aamir Khan). That movie went on to earn $8 million total, which is a likely outcome for P.K. as well.
Foxcatcher expanded to 307 locations and added $954,000 this weekend. So far, the Sony Classics awards contender has earned $4.4 million total.
