It was a tough weekend to predict which film would come out on top. Would The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey be able to hang on in the face of a 56.3% drop last weekend? Could Django Unchained overcome its R-rating and vie for the top spot? Had Les Miserables already tapped out its largest audience and was anything left in the tank? As it turns out, the answers to those questions are “Yes”, “Almost” and “No” as all three films performed very well, making for a fantastic final weekend at the 2012 box-office.
While Laremy struggled to determine whether it would be The Hobbit or Les Mis on top with his predictions on Thursday, it turns out he was nearly spot on with his Les Mis prediction, but slightly under on The Hobbit.
The Hobbit pulled in $32.9 million over the three-day, dipping only 10.9% from last weekend as its domestic cume now totals $222.7 million and over $622 million worldwide in just 17 days. Laremy placed Les Mis #1 with $27.8 million, and was just $200,000 off as it scored $28 million and a third place finish.
Coming in second was Quentin Tarantino‘s Django Unchained, scoring an impressive $30.6 million and has now made $64 million in its first six days of release, outpacing Inglourious Basterds, which was at only $50.5 million at the same point back in 2009 before going on to gross $120.5 million domestically. To say Django is looking like it will be Tarantino’s highest grossing film ever is an understatement as he just may be getting closer and closer to be a household name.
Looking over reader predictions for these top three films, here’s how the results breakdown:
- The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – Closest Prediction: Sensei White Lotus with $31 million prediction
- Django Unchained – Closest Prediction: Will-E with $30 million prediction
- Les Miserables – Closest Prediction: Jack with a spot-on $28 million prediction
Remember to get those predictions in before the end of the day on Thursdays in order for them to count.
An interesting little stat for the year tells us Steven Spielberg‘s Lincoln is now the highest grossing drama of 2012 with $132 million. Guess fast at which two films come in second and third… If you guessed Channing Tatum‘s The Vow ($125m) and Magic Mike ($113.7m) you’d be right.
And, despite the fact The Weinstein Co. finally upped the number of theaters Silver Linings Playbook was in, the film couldn’t crack the top ten. Expanding into a total of 745 theaters, the film mustered $4.1 million and now sits at $27.3 million domestically.
Elsewhere, Zero Dark Thirty is still only playing in five theaters in New York and Los Angeles and scored $315,000 for a $63,000 per theater average. It will be adding theaters on January 4 and expanding wide on January 11.
Opening in only 25 theaters, Matt Damon‘s Promised Land isn’t looking too promising with only $190,000.
Next weekend it will be 2013 and the lone wide release is Texas Chainsaw 3D. I have seen several ads for it over the last month or so, so Lionsgate is clearly hoping to do some damage at the box-office, but will there be enough interest in the return of Leatherface for it to have much of a chance? Discuss below!
