Weekend Report: 'Hobbit' Emerges Victorious in Final Box Office 'Battle'
Moviegoers stormed theaters this weekend to spend "one last time" in Middle Earth.
Including Wednesday and Thursday ticket sales, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies has already earned $89.1 million, which puts it on track to ultimately surpass its predecessor (The Desolation of Smaug).
Meanwhile, Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb and Annie (2014) opened at essentially the same level; that's quite good for the moderately-budgeted musical, but not-so-great for the big-budget fantasy sequel.
Over the three-day weekend, the final chapter in the Hobbit trilogy dominated with $54.7 million. That's the lowest opening weekend in the franchise so far, though it's also the first and only movie to open on a Wednesday.
A better comparison can be drawn to the Lord of the Rings movies, all of which opened on a Wednesday. The movie's $89.1 million five-day total is 13 percent lower than The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers ($102 million), which opened around this same time back in 2002. While that may seem a bit disappointing for a finale with the addition of 3D/IMAX ticket pricing, it's par for the course for the Hobbit movies, which have all earned less than The Lord of the Rings at the domestic box office.
This opening does look quite good when projecting it out over the long run, which is critical for December releases. If it plays like the last two movies in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, it will ultimately earn at least $270 million, which would put it ahead of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.
Franchise titles have had a tough time this year in the U.S.: recently, Dumb and Dumber To, Horrible Bosses 2, Penguins of Madagascar and Mockingjay all earned significantly less than their predecessors. The Battle of the Five Armies avoided that fate for a number of reasons.
First—and perhaps most important—is the fact that Peter Jackson's Middle Earth movies have a very large, very dedicated fan base. After the first Hobbit movie received a lukewarm response, the sequel was only off 15 percent. One could argue that drop essentially accounted for all of the casual fans, leaving $258 million worth of dedicated patrons who weren't going to skip the final chapter.
Producers also made a smart choice about where to end the second movie. Instead of doing away with the villainous dragon Smaug at the end of that movie—where it made the most sense, story-wise—that sequence was moved to the beginning of the third movie. Without that move, the third outing would have existed entirely to wrap up secondary plot threads, which would have made it much easier to skip.
It's also significant that they changed the subtitle from There and Back Again to The Battle of the Five Armies. Instead of marketing this as another whimsical adventure, it was clear from the start that this was going to be a war movie with large-scale chaos on par with popular sequences in Peter Jackson's last two Lord of the Rings movies.
Finally, the marketing campaign emphasized that this was the final installment: the phrase "one last time" was used in nearly every piece of advertising. This successfully conveyed the message that this was the final opportunity to visit Middle Earth on the big screen, which surely helped convince some people who were wary about dropping $12 on another one of these movies.
The audience for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies was 60 percent male and 60 percent over the age of 25. They awarded the movie an "A-" CinemaScore, which is pretty standard for the Hobbit trilogy. IMAX shows accounted for $7.4 million—$13.4 million over the five-day frame—while 3D shows represented 49 percent of ticket sales.
Continued with a look at 'Night at the Museum,' 'Annie,' 'Wild' and more >>
Discuss this story with fellow Box Office Mojo fans on Facebook. On Twitter, follow us at @boxofficemojo, and follow author Ray Subers at @raysubers.
Forecast:
• Will Moviegoers Show Up One Last Time for 'The Hobbit'?
Last Weekend
• 'Exodus' is Weak King
This Timeframe in Past Years:
• 2013 - Burgundy Beaten by Bilbo
• 2012 - 'Hobbit' Plummets, Holds Off Slew of Newcomers
• 2011 - 'M:I-4' Sizzles Over Solid Christmas Weekend
• 2010 - 'Fockers' Fester, 'Grit' Has Gumption
• 2009 - Christmas Booms with 'Avatar,' 'Sherlock,' 'Alvin'
• 2008 - 'Marley' Retrieves Box Office Luster Over Christmas
• 2007 - 'National Treasure' Leads Christmas Rush
• 2005 - 'King Kong' Clings to Christmas Top Spot Over 'Chronicles'
Related Charts
• Weekend Box Office Results
• Yearly Box Office
Including Wednesday and Thursday ticket sales, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies has already earned $89.1 million, which puts it on track to ultimately surpass its predecessor (The Desolation of Smaug).
Meanwhile, Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb and Annie (2014) opened at essentially the same level; that's quite good for the moderately-budgeted musical, but not-so-great for the big-budget fantasy sequel.
Over the three-day weekend, the final chapter in the Hobbit trilogy dominated with $54.7 million. That's the lowest opening weekend in the franchise so far, though it's also the first and only movie to open on a Wednesday.
A better comparison can be drawn to the Lord of the Rings movies, all of which opened on a Wednesday. The movie's $89.1 million five-day total is 13 percent lower than The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers ($102 million), which opened around this same time back in 2002. While that may seem a bit disappointing for a finale with the addition of 3D/IMAX ticket pricing, it's par for the course for the Hobbit movies, which have all earned less than The Lord of the Rings at the domestic box office.
This opening does look quite good when projecting it out over the long run, which is critical for December releases. If it plays like the last two movies in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, it will ultimately earn at least $270 million, which would put it ahead of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.
Franchise titles have had a tough time this year in the U.S.: recently, Dumb and Dumber To, Horrible Bosses 2, Penguins of Madagascar and Mockingjay all earned significantly less than their predecessors. The Battle of the Five Armies avoided that fate for a number of reasons.
First—and perhaps most important—is the fact that Peter Jackson's Middle Earth movies have a very large, very dedicated fan base. After the first Hobbit movie received a lukewarm response, the sequel was only off 15 percent. One could argue that drop essentially accounted for all of the casual fans, leaving $258 million worth of dedicated patrons who weren't going to skip the final chapter.
Producers also made a smart choice about where to end the second movie. Instead of doing away with the villainous dragon Smaug at the end of that movie—where it made the most sense, story-wise—that sequence was moved to the beginning of the third movie. Without that move, the third outing would have existed entirely to wrap up secondary plot threads, which would have made it much easier to skip.
It's also significant that they changed the subtitle from There and Back Again to The Battle of the Five Armies. Instead of marketing this as another whimsical adventure, it was clear from the start that this was going to be a war movie with large-scale chaos on par with popular sequences in Peter Jackson's last two Lord of the Rings movies.
Finally, the marketing campaign emphasized that this was the final installment: the phrase "one last time" was used in nearly every piece of advertising. This successfully conveyed the message that this was the final opportunity to visit Middle Earth on the big screen, which surely helped convince some people who were wary about dropping $12 on another one of these movies.
The audience for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies was 60 percent male and 60 percent over the age of 25. They awarded the movie an "A-" CinemaScore, which is pretty standard for the Hobbit trilogy. IMAX shows accounted for $7.4 million—$13.4 million over the five-day frame—while 3D shows represented 49 percent of ticket sales.
Continued with a look at 'Night at the Museum,' 'Annie,' 'Wild' and more >>
Discuss this story with fellow Box Office Mojo fans on Facebook. On Twitter, follow us at @boxofficemojo, and follow author Ray Subers at @raysubers.
Forecast:
• Will Moviegoers Show Up One Last Time for 'The Hobbit'?
Last Weekend
• 'Exodus' is Weak King
This Timeframe in Past Years:
• 2013 - Burgundy Beaten by Bilbo
• 2012 - 'Hobbit' Plummets, Holds Off Slew of Newcomers
• 2011 - 'M:I-4' Sizzles Over Solid Christmas Weekend
• 2010 - 'Fockers' Fester, 'Grit' Has Gumption
• 2009 - Christmas Booms with 'Avatar,' 'Sherlock,' 'Alvin'
• 2008 - 'Marley' Retrieves Box Office Luster Over Christmas
• 2007 - 'National Treasure' Leads Christmas Rush
• 2005 - 'King Kong' Clings to Christmas Top Spot Over 'Chronicles'
Related Charts
• Weekend Box Office Results
• Yearly Box Office
