TFR Ticker: Battle Of The Five Armies Slaughters A Crowded Field
Chris Scalzo
‘The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies’ mercifully comes to an extended end with a robust $56.22 million ($90.6 total including the Wednesday and Thursday), easily manhandling the competition of ‘A Night At The Museum: Secret Of The Tomb’ and the much maligned ‘Annie’ remake.
"You want to make ANOTHER sequel?"
The ‘Night At The Museum’ was a particularly bad opener at $17.3 million. The third film in the series, it performed barely more than half the return of the first film’s $30.4 million and well below the sequel’s $54 million. Things do not bode well for the film and its $127 million budget. Though I’m sure the kids will bring it home eventually. So what accounts for the drop in attendance? I think it’s ‘Annie’, another family friendly film
Sony/Columbia must be pleased (besides that whole hacking scandal thing) with this return given the poor reviews and stiff competition. The remake stars one of my favorite cinematic tongue twister actor names, Quvenzhane Wallis (‘Beasts Of The Southern Wild’) as that titular Annie. With a budget of just (like that? “just”) $65 million, the film should have no problem turning a profit to help set off all those…other woes.
Ridley’s Scott’s ‘Exodus: Gods And Kings’ slips to fourth place with $8.6 million. That’s almost a 67% drop. Maybe the holidays will help buoy Scott’s take on the biblical tale, but I wouldn’t bet my burning bush on it.
"You know Sandy, in some countries you're a delicacy."
‘The Hunger Games: Part 3/Part 1’ continues to roll along with $7.75 million with a total of $289 million. Look at ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’, Katniss is coming at your $332 large any week now.
Reese Witherspoon’s incredible performance shoots ‘Wild’ from 10th place to 7th with $4.15 million. One of the best films of the year, hopefully ‘Wild’ will continue to climb. Chris Rock’s ‘Top Five’ pulled in $3.57 million to put it over the $12 million mark and bring it to profitability!
Rounding out the top 10 were ‘Big Hero 6’ at 8, ‘Penguins Of Madagascar’ at 9, and the new release from India, ‘P.K.’ at 10th.
‘Birdman’ saw it’s first drop to 15th place $910,000, while ‘Foxcatcher’ moved up to 14th with $954,000. ‘The Imitation Game’ was down to 16th, from 13th, but continued to improve with a 5% increase to $895,000.
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