UK Box Office 3 – 5 January 2014

The all-star American Hustle topped the box office this weekend, with help from previews that kept it ahead of both The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and Frozen. American Hustle gave director David O. Russell his biggest ever opening in the UK with £3.5m, including £1.1m from previews. That’s well ahead of Silver Linings Playbook’s £1.3m debut in 2012 and that film, directed by O. Russell, featured Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro, who all appear in American Hustle.

Second spot was taken by The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug with £3.2m, narrowly missing out on being the first film since Les Misérables to top the box office for four consecutive weeks. Peter Jackson’s fantasy epic has now grossed an impressive £37.3m and should comfortably pass the £40m mark.

Third spot was taken by Frozen, which added £2.9m for a huge cume of £30.8m. It really is a remarkable performance for Disney’s seasonal offering and it is now both Disney Animation’s most successful film and the most successful Christmas animation of all time.

Fourth spot was taken by the geriatric hangover jaunt, Last Vegas with £1.8m. That’s a solid start for the all-star ensemble comedy, which provides an undemanding alternative to the more weighty fare currently in cinemas and released over the coming weeks.

Fifth spot was taken by horror spin-off, Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones with £1.6m (including £571k from previews). That’s the lowest opening for a Paranormal Activity film but this is the first one to open in January. One other notable new entry was Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom in seventh with £1.4m. In terms of recent biopics, that’s better than Diana (£623k) and Hitchcock (£609k) but just behind Lincoln (£1.7m).

The first weekend of the year is traditionally a strong one and this was the first weekend since February 2011 that the top eight films all grossed over £1m.

Overall, the box office was up 5% from last weekend and up less than 1% from the same weekend last year, which had much higher preview figures (from The Impossible and Quartet), so it’s a great start to the year.

In the US, Frozen once again topped the box office, with $20.7m, the third-highest sixth weekend ever. The Disney animation has grossed a whopping $297.8m. Just behind was Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones, which opened with $18.2m and the audience was 68% under 25 years of age.

In third, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug dropped 44% to $16.3m and now has a cume of $229.6m. In fourth, The Wolf of Wall Street had a decent hold, easing just 27% to $13.4m and a cume of $63.3m. American Hustle completed the top five with $13.2m and a strong cume of $88.7m.