It’s the final box office weekend of 2013 and it belongs to The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, which is enjoying some stellar holdovers after a somewhat soft opening weekend given its sequel nature. In its second weekend the film dropped only 57.2% and this weekend it only dipped 5% for an estimated $29.8 million, enough for a third weekend in a row at #1, barely edging out Disney’s Frozen at $28.8 million as holdovers ruled the day and Frozen became the second highest grossing Disney Animation release ever, trailing only The Lion King ($422m).
You have to go down to the fifth position to find one of the new Christmas Day releases as the top four remained essentially the same from last weekend. The Wolf of Wall Street fell just shy of American Hustle as it racked up $18.5 million and a boatload of controversy as some people are declaring it to be a film glorifying its bad behavior rather than serving as a satire, laughing at the state of greed in the modern era as well as the glassy-eyed audience that doesn’t realize the film is also condemning them. The question I have is Did the film fail to get across its message or can people not see it for what it is? Personally I thought the ending was a clear giveaway, but what do I know?
Ben Stiller‘s The Secret Life of Walter Mitty failed to catch fire and still has some work to do to make up that $90 million budget. The film managed $13 million this weekend and has made $25 million since its Christmas opening.
Moving to ninth we find our next new Christmas release in 47 Ronin, a film with a budget ranging from $175-250 million depending on what you believe. The film opened with $7 million on Christmas Day, but only managed $9.8 million over the three-day.
Then there’s the matter of Grudge Match, which couldn’t even crack the top ten, coming in 11th with $7.3 million, though I guess it could eek out a victory over Tyler Perry’s A Madea Christmas once actuals arrive.
Spike Jonze‘s Her remained in limited release, playing in only 47 theaters wehre it made $645,000 ($13,723 per) while Peter Berg‘s Lone Surviro opened in only two theaters and dominated with $92,468 for a $46,234 per theater average.
Additional Oscar hopefuls in limited release include Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom ($2.4 million), Philomena ($1.8 million), Nebraska ($800k) and August: Osage County ($179,500; 5 theaters).
Next weekend kicks off 2014 with Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones and for those of you competing in the RopeofSilicon Box Office Challenge, we’re still waiting for Paramount actuals from last weekend, which means we not only have this weekend’s actuals to wait on, but last as well. Word is those numbers may not arrive until January 3, so we may be waiting a little while before crowning a 2013 winner.
