Although THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG performed slightly worse than its predecessor initially, that hasn’t stopped the incredible sequel from storming the worldwide box office. Now that 2013 is due for imminent close it’s time to see how the Christmas box office fared and how well our festive favourites performed over the holiday period.
It seems that Peter Jackson’s mind blowing second chapter in the Middle Earth prequel franchise spent its third week at the top spot of the North American box office. That takes the film to $190.3 Million domestically and $423.8 Million internationally for a grand total of a whopping $614.1 Million worldwide (so far). I think it’s safe to say that Bilbo’s second round of dwarf-filled adventure is a huge success and it will almost certainly cross the billion dollar mark as the first film did last year. Elsewhere Disney’s wonderful animated family film FROZEN held on tight to the second place in its sixth weekend of release for a current domestic total of $248.3 Million and worldwide total of $491.9 Million. That puts the film as Disney’s second most successful domestic release after the all time classic LION KING which will surely spark up conversations of a sequel sooner or later.
In third place is the belated sequel ANCHORMAN 2: THE LEGEND CONTINUES which has already out-grossed its predecessor with a current domestic total of $83.7 Million and a worldwide gross of $109.6 Million so far. This will come as good news to fans of the film after it was widely regarded as a disappointment compared to its hilarious predecessor released in 2004. AMERICAN HUSTLE and THE WOLF OF WALL STREET claimed the fourth and fifth spots at the Christmas box office, with the former so far grossing $60 Million domestically and the latter receiving an impressive $34.3 Million domestically in its opening weekend. Unfortunately us UK dwellers have yet to see either of the two films that our chums across the pond have been enjoying over the Christmas period, but it will be interesting to see how they both fare when they are released here in the coming weeks.
It’s not all good news for the box office however as 47 RONIN, GRUDGE MATCH and BELIEVE have all bombed terribly at North American theatres, however none of these films have been released in many other territories yet. Finally it’s a record year for Hollywood once again as it has been confirmed that this years grand total revenue of around $10.9 Billion will just about beat last years astonishing $10.8 Billion. Lets hope that with all the exciting releases set for 2014, the Film industry continues to strive and exceed this years fantastic films and box office results.
Source: THR
