Weekend Box Office Report: December 20-22 2013

By Kip Mooney • On • In News News 0

 

BOX OFFICE REPORT December 20-22, 2013(estimates from BoxOfficeMojo.com)

TOP 51. The Hobbit 2 ($31.4 million)2. Anchorman 2 ($26.7 million)3. Frozen ($19.1 million)4. American Hustle ($19.1 million)5. Saving Mr. Banks ($9.3 million)

 

Like a street fight between rival networks, Anchorman 2 took a beating. Despite a massive marketing campaign with Ron Burgundy appearing nearly everywhere, and being a sequel to the one of the funniest movies of all time, it actually debuted below the original. There's no way this doesn't come as a disappointment. Still, it's made $40 million since opening Wednesday and should end up with more than the first one's $85 million.

American Hustle jumped up significantly, nearly matching Frozen's tally with $19.1 million. It's well on its way to being a holiday hit for smart adults, instead of the usual family-friendly fare. Behind it was Saving Mr. Banks, which pulled in around $9.3 million, up a whopping 2,155 percent. Yet it still hasn't been the breakout hit Disney was hoping for.

Lastly, Frozen and The Hobbit continued their successes, but only the former looks like it will pass $200 million domestically.

Outside the top 5: This Weekend's Indie Champ: Her, Spike Jonze's latest mind-blower, averaged $43,000 on only six screens. It's gotten rave reviews, particularly for the performances of Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson, who provides the voice of the computer operating system he falls in love with. 

- Kids these days. They're not even impressed by dinosaurs anymore. Walking with Dinosaurs flopped tremendously, taking in only $7.3 million. That's only good for 8th place.

- Just behind that was Dhoom 3, an Indian film that opened on only 236 screens, and made $14,000 on each one of them. Now, Hollywood, which one should you be investing in?

Next week:The Christmas onslaught begins. Five movies open on Wednesday. The most likely victors are Ben Stiller's The Secret Life of Walter Mitty or Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street. I'm betting on the latter. Last year at Christmas, the hard R-rated movie (Django Unchained) succeeded over the film more geared for a wider audience (Les Miserables). Given that this Hobbit film hasn't performed like its predecessor, I think DiCaprio will triumph once more, with Wolf taking the No. 1 spot with $30 million over the weekend, and about $60 over five days. Walter Mitty will be close behind with $25 million and $55 million over the same period. That leaves the Rocky vs. Raging Bull comedy Grudge Match and Keanu Reeves' samurai shenanigans in 47 Ronin out cold, along with the Justin Bieber tour doc Believe, which I still have yet to see anything more than a poster for.

Facebooktwitterredditmail

About Kip Mooney

Kip Mooney
Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.

Leave a Reply