Box Office Weekend: Final Hobbit Looms Large Above the Competition

After a long road, The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies brings the latest Peter Jackson trilogy to an end. Weathering both praise and criticism (especially in comparison to his previous Lord of the Rings films), it may be somewhat understandable that, while it took first place at the box office with an estimated $56.2 million, it falls below the revenue of any of his previous Middle Earth-based films. However, it also had little to fear from its fellow debuts; while featuring one of the last appearances of Robin Williams, A Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb did not wow audiences with its estimated $17.3 million (barely a scratch to its hefty $127 million budget), but the latest rendition of Annie failed to capture much attention either, the $65 million adaptation only bringing in an estimated $16.3 million.

Exodus: Gods and Kings took quite the tumble from its once lofty perch, an estimated $8.1 million not boding well for the Ridley Scott biblical epic. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 continues a slow decline with an estimated $7.8 million, but has little to fear having earned $289.2 million and firmly cementing itself as the second highest earning domestic release of the year. Wild made an uptick after adding nearly a thousand theaters to its roster, making an estimated $4.2 million. It topped up against Top Five, whose estimated $3.6 million has it nearly tied with Big Hero 6 (also estimated $3.6 million), but Wild and Top Five are much closer in stature; both films have earned roughly the same amount, but neither has released their production costs, while Big Hero 6 has proven a modest success at worst, thanks to overseas revenue. In a similar way, Penguins of Madagascar and its estimated $3.5 million might prove a domestic flop, but worldwide earnings ensured the scheming penguins did not suffer a complete setback.

Finally, the tenth spot on the list belongs to a Bollywood debut as P.K. opened to an estimated $3.5 million. While unlikely to make too many waves (little was heard from Dhoom 3 in 2013 when it appeared briefly in the top ten), it may be interesting to see if Bollywood will continue inroads on the U.S. market at the end of the calendar year from here on out.

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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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