Box Office Weekend: Anchorman Stays Classy but The Hobbit Still Grabs the Gold

NOTE: While the rest of the listings are the official totals listed for each film, Paramount does not plan on releasing their numbers until January 3rd. Therefore, films released by Paramount (such as Anchorman 2) are estimates until further notice.

Even though it has not quite lived up to domestic box office expectations, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug still managed to be the top draw at the box office for a second week with $31.5 million. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues had to settle for a second-place finish, earning an estimated $26.8 million, but thanks to an early week opening the well-received comedy sequel has managed to nearly break even, and will likely be a decent success before too long…much like Frozen, whose weekend gross of $19.6 million has made it $192 million domestically (granted, on a $150 million budget).

Fourth and fifth place belong to two films new to wide release. American Hustle, the new David O. Russell drama about undercover work in the Jersey mob, made $19.1 million and rave reviews, well ahead of Saving Mr. Banks, the tale of the making of Disney’s Mary Poppins. While it too has gotten good reviews, it has nowhere near the revenue, its $9.3 million weekend gross is nearly all the money it has made against $35 million in costs. But neither film can compete with The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. With its $8.8 million, the $371.7 million it has made domestically makes it the highest grosser in the top ten, but also the second highest earning film of the year, finally winning out over Despicable Me 2.

Tyler Perry’s A Madea Christmas made $8.4 million and dropped several places, though even without a reported budget it is likely to be another modest success for Tyler Perry as past efforts cost roughly $20-25 million apiece. It still opened better than the new Disney animated film Walking with Dinosaurs, which earned $7.1 million and the ire of critics and audiences alike, and Dhoom 3, the latest in the Hindi action film franchise. The import opened to $3.2 million, though where it will go from here is up in the air. Finally, Thor: The Dark World made $1.3 million, a small but welcome addition to yet another Marvel Studios success story.

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Seth Paul

When not failing to write novels and screenplays, box-office guru Seth writes humorous comedy tracks for films under the name "The One Man Band" that can be found at Rifftrax.com. Although, he has recently succeeded in writing the novella "Jack Alan and the Case of the Not-Exactly Rocket Scientists," available as an eBook on Amazon. He is also the English voice of Zak in "Zak McKracken: Between Time and Space."

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