| Date | |
|---|---|
| Author | DCM |
| Categories | cinemabox OfficeExhibitor News |
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug dwarfed the competition this past weekend grossing over half of the top 15’s total box office. A £9.3m debut is the fifth highest of the year and is only fractionally less than The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’s Friday to Sunday total of £9.5m. That film went on to reach the dizzying heights of £52.3m by the end of its run and although second instalments often aren’t as successful, it bodes well for The Desolation of Smaug. A healthy 56.4% of the box office was from 3D presentations.
On its second week, Frozen had a sensational hold falling a meagre 11% to £4.2m. The Disney animation now has a cume of £10.3m, which is already half way to overtaking Tangled's £20.5m final total and with the school holidays still to start, I’d put money on Frozen coming out on top.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire fell one place to third with a further £1.4m taking its cume to £28.8m and a final total in excess of £30m is now a certainty. It’s now sixth on the list of 2013’s biggest films and could finish as high as fourth. Gravity is still proving a force, falling to fourth, with a further £592k taking it to £25.8m and ninth on the list of 2013’s biggest films. It should climb at least one more place before the end of the year.
Saving Mr. Banks completed the top five with the strongest hold of the weekend, falling 35% to £359k and a cume of £2.8m. With The Hobbit dominating cinemas, there were no other new entries in the top 15, except the Met Opera’s Falstaff in sixth. Overall the box office was up 53% from last weekend and also up 1% from the same weekend last year, which also benefited from a full day’s preview of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey after it was released on a Thursday.
In the US, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug snared a strong $73.7m, which although is 13% less than An Unexpected Journey opened with last year, is still the fourth highest December opening of all time. The audience was 60% male and 64% over 25 years of age. In second place, Frozen fell one place to second with $22.2m and now has a cume of $164.4m.
The second highest new entry was Tyler Perry's A Madea Christmas, which opened with $16m. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was in fourth, falling 50% to $13.2m and a cume of $357m. The top five was completed by Out of the Furnace, which grossed $2.3m for a disappointing cume of $9.5m.
