Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, the second installment in The Hobbit franchise, set the competition on fire this weekend earning $73.7 million in its box office debut. The haul was large enough to rank the opening as the fourth largest of all-time in the month of December, but the film still failed to meet the expectations of last year’s An Unexpected Journey.
When Journey was released last year it opened to a December record-setting $84.6 million. The film’s success can be attributed to the nine years of anticipation that fan’s had to endure since the release of the last J. R. R. Tolkien film, Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, in 2003. Although Smaug didn’t live up to the opening of Journey, the fact that the second installment in The Hobbit franchise is still putting up extremely strong numbers at the box office after five J. R. R. Tolkien films have opened over the span of a decade is a testament to the loyalty of the fan base.
In its fourth week of release, Disney’s Frozen is holding strong to second place with $22.2 million. Featuring the voice talents of Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff and Josh Gad, the animated film is still drawing families to the box office during the holiday shopping season. Frozen is on track to surpass the $275 million mark this week thanks to a +$102 million boost from international markets.
Tyler Perry’s A Madea Christmas debuted this weekend to terrible reviews, but that didn’t keep fans from checking out the holiday comedy. The film earned $16 million over the weekend, enough to place the film in third place for the weekend.
In its fourth week of release, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire‘s earnings dropped in half to $13.2 million this week ($27 million last week). Already surpassing $357 million in North America, Catching Fire is on track to hit the $750 million mark later this week. The film has already passed the worldwide gross of its predecessor, 2012’s The Hunger Games, of $691 million.
Here’s a look at this week’s Top 10 films at the box office:
- The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – $73.7 million
- Frozen– $22.2 million
- Tyler Perry’s A Madea Christmas – $16 million
- The Hunger Games: Catching Fire – $13.2 million
- Thor: The Dark World – $2.7 million
- Out of the Furnace – $2.3 million
- Delivery Man – $1.9 million
- Philomena – $1.8 million
- The Book Thief – $1.7 million
- Homefront – $1.6 million
