forg

‘The Hobbit’ Heats Up, “The Interview” Cools at Booming Holiday Box Office http://www.thewrap.com/the-hobbit-heats-up-the-interview-cools-at-booming-holiday-box-office/ Tolkein tale overtakes “Unbroken” and “Into the Woods” with $15.6 million Friday haul and heads for $45 million and 2nd win Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies” flexed some Middle Earth muscle with $15.6 million at the box office Friday, and is now positioned to claim its second straight weekend crown At the same time, the flag-waving frenzy over “The Interview” cooled down, the overall box office stayed hot and Oscar hopefuls “American Sniper,” “The Imitation Game” and “Selma” picked up steam. Sony’s controversial Seth Rogen-James Franco comedy took in an estimated $725,000 from 331 independent theaters, down from its $1 million first day, and is looking at $2.8 million for the weekend. Sony made the film at the center of the hacking scandal available for downloads on YouTube, Google Play, Xbox and the studio’s own site this weekend well, which irked the the major theaters chains and caused them to boycott its release. “Five Armies,” the finale in “The Hobbit” franchise from MGM and New Line, should finish the four days with more than $45 million. That should be enough for the blockbuster epic based on J.R. Tolkien’s fantasy to hold off Universal’s “Unbroken” and Disney’s “Into the Woods,” the two wide over-performing wide openers that went 1-2 on Christmas Day, and push its domestic total past $175 million for Warner Bros. The Angelina Jolie-directed biopic of Louis Zamperini and the star-laden musical directed by Rob Marshall both took in around $12 million Friday and should finish the long holiday weekend in the $40 million range. Paramount’s “The Gambler,” another wide opener, is on pace for $11 million after bringing in $2.6 million Friday, while The Mark Wahlberg crime drama finished behind holdovers Fox’s “Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb,” Sony’s “Annie” and Lionsgate’s long-playing “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1.” The second-week holdovers got holiday bumps and saw increases from their openings last Friday. The “Night at the Museum” sequel took in $7.4 million, up 34 percent from last week, and is heading for a weekend total of around $25 million. “Annie” was up 16 percent and took in $6.1 million Friday, and should finish at around $22 million. The Tim Burton-directed “Big Eyes” is struggling after taking in just over $1 million from 1,307 theaters on Friday for the Weinstein Company. That the tale of artist Margaret Keane starring Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz will likely finish out of the top ten with a disappointing $4 million for the four days. All of this adds up to weekend box office that is running about 12 percent ahead of last year, when “The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug” and “Frozen” lead the way, and will end the month-long slump in ticket sales. Several movies with awards ambitions were scoring, too. “American Sniper,” the Iraq war tale directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Bradley Cooper and Sienna Miller, continued to impress in its opening for Warner Bros. It took in nearly $200,000 from just four theaters Friday and is on pace for one of the biggest limited debuts of the year. Paramount’s civil rights drama “Selma” brought in $211,000 from 19 theaters on Friday. That means the Ava DuVernary-directed drama should wind up north of $600,000 in its first weekend, a very strong start.

You're over thinking it. Most people don't even know of that incident since it's all about The Interview & Sony hack.Anyway, I just think it's shallow reason to boycott a movie out you were initially interested because of an action of the film studio towards another movie.

Hope we get some Friday numbers soon

Loving the numbers! Into The Woods had potential to earn more if it was on 3,000+ screens I guess but still great OD

Can't wait to see the official numbers out in a few hours

1). Unbroken (UNI), 3,131 theaters /$15.6M Thurs.*/ Total cume: $15.6M /Wk 1 *includes Christmas Eve previews of $850K 2). Into the Woods (DIS), 2,440 theaters /$13.6M Thurs./ Total cume:$13.6M /Wk 1 includes Christmas Eve previews of $1.1M 3). The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (WB), 3,875 theaters /$12.7M Thurs.(+112%)/ Total cume: $126.66M/Wk 2 4). Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (FOX), 3,914 theaters (+129) /$6.8M Thurs.(+145%)/ Total cume: $34.2M /Wk 1 5). The Gambler (Par), 2,478 theaters /$4.6M Thurs.*/ Total cume: $4.6M /Wk 1 6). Annie (Sony), 3,197 theaters (+81) /$4.4M Thurs. (+117%)/ Total cume: $29M /Wk 1 7.) The Imitation Game (TWC), 747 theaters (+713) / $2.95M Thurs.(+1791%) / Total cume: $6.4M/ Wk 4 8). Exodus: Gods and Kings (FOX), 3,002 theaters (-501)/$2.77M Thurs.(+190%)/ Total cume: $45.5M/Wk 2 9). The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (LGF),2,793 theaters (-381) /$2.48M Thurs. (+154%) /Total cume: $296.4M/Wk 5 10). Wild (FSL), 1,285 theaters (+224) / $1.56M Thurs. (+166%) / Total cume: $10.8M /Wk 3 11). Big Eyes (TWC), 1,307 theaters /$1.33M Thurs./ Total cume: $1.33M /Wk 1 12.) Top Five (PAR), 1,426 theaters (+119) /$1.15M Thurs.(+174%)/ Total cume: $15.15M /Wk 2 13.) The Interview (Sony), 331 theaters / $1.112M Thurs. /$3,360 screen average/Total cume: $1.112M/ Wk 1 Notables: Selma (Par), 19 theaters / $300K Thurs. /$15,789 screen average// Total cume: $300K / Wk 1 American Sniper (WB), 4 theaters / $200K Thurs./$50k screen average/ Total cume: $200k/ Wk 1 *** That's really great for American Sniper! Good for Selmas as well

"The awareness of “The Interview” may have benefitted rival titles," So The Interview saved Christmas Box Office? Yeah right

Box Office: ‘The Interview’ Earns Nearly $1 Million on Christmas; ‘Unbroken,’ ‘Into the Woods’ Surging to $40M http://variety.com/2014/film/news/box-office-the-interview-earns-nearly-1-million-on-christmas-unbroken-into-the-woods-surging-to-40m-1201387451/ Sony’s “The Interview” has delivered nearly $1 million on its opening day on Christmas — an impressive launch for a title playing in only about 300 independent theaters in the U.S. The controversial comedy launched amid a barrage of news coverage with several theaters opting for midnight screenings. The Alamo Drafthouse chain had reported on Christmas Eve that it had sold out all of its opening days screenings at 17 locations. The opening day numbers for “The Interview” may drop off in coming days, given that Sony launched a VOD release on Wednesday morning via YouTube, Google Play, Microsoft’s Xbox Video and its own http://www.seetheinterview.com site. Major chains such as AMC, Regal and Carmike are refusing to book “The Interview” due to the VOD release. The awareness of “The Interview” may have benefitted rival titles, which saw Christmas grosses come in well above estimates with three titles — Universal’s “Unbroken,” Disney’s “Into the Woods” and New Line-MGM’s “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” heading for at least $40 million each for the four-day Christmas weekend. Angelina Jolie’s war drama “Unbroken” performed far above forecasts with Christmas Day grosses of about $15 million at 3,131 locations. The tale of war hero Louis Zamperini could wind up hitting above $45 million for the holiday weekend. “Into the Woods” delivered Christmas box office in the $12 million to $13 million range at 2,424 with the top numbers coming from large cities, portending a weekend in the $39 million to $44 million range. Peter Jackson’s Hobbit finale doubled its $6 million Christmas Eve total to about $12 million at 3,875, leading to a probable $40 million weekend — a hold that’s in line with the previous two films — and a U.S. total around $155 million by the end of Sunday. Paramount’s remake of “The Gambler” opened respectably with about $4.5 million at 2,478 on Christmas, portending a weekend of around $15 million. The Weinstein Co.’s “Big Eyes” looked moderate with an opening $1.5 million at 1,307.

I wonder how Selma performed

Great for both Any numbers for the holdovers?

True even Alexander made money but Planes 2 and *sigh* Muppets Most Wanted disappointed but at least Planes 2 will make money on merchandising.

This Oscar season re-ignited the Team Jolie vs Team Aniston fan war eh?

Agree! This movie is nearly flawless and quite an engaging theater experience. I watched in a 300 capacity theater and we were only 5 but still it was a great experience

Hoping we get holdovers #s soon. Looking forward to BH6's performance

I think the marketing was great, Universal even capitalized NBC's Olympics coverage to promote this early on. The poor reviews and awards shutout (and Jolie's chicken pox) dampened things though and made me question if this could still breakout but looks like it didn't matter at all

Unbroken still has a shot for Best Picture nomination despite the reviews and Globes shutout especially if the box office continues to do well ala Blind Slide. it could still do well with AMPAS voters ala Extremely Loud

Loving the box office updates so far! I hope the holdovers (especially the ones I like) do great numbers as well

Hope both gets to the high end! Hopefully 2014 Box Office will end oh a stronger note despite the overall lackluster performance

Ando, Streep and Jolie making this thread so active And come on on guys let's not complain with the early guesstimates from the trades, if we don't have numbers in any form, people whine and thread dies early. It's OK to have these early guesstimates to have something to talk about if they will be wrong or not lol

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays Box Office Geeks! Maligayang Pasko!

^ You never know with these hackers but the VOD sites should have better security than Sony

I hope the hack loonies will not get the credit card info of those who will buy/rent this movie on the VOD sites

Sony should have waited a day after the theaters screened it before releasing it on VOD or even on the same day, the indie theaters were hyping this as an event for their theater ("be one of the first to see this controversial film here" ) to drive up business then they announce the VOD release right NOW so that spoils the theater run. Well I dunno Sony just probably wants to get this over with (and I hope the controversy about this dies soon too!)

Before that incident were you interested to see Selma? If yes don't let those things affect it because well sorry I think it's silly to boycott a movie because of that

Post edited