The last pre-Christmas weekend of the year saw a new champion crowned at the movies, as the final installment of Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy took the top spot at the weekend box office. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies earned $56.2 million over the weekend to take top honours, finishing with $90.6 million earned since its opening on Wednesday. The second and third place also went to new releases, as fellow third installment Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb ended up in second place with $17.3 million, with the Quvenzhane Wallis musical Annie rounding out the top three with $16.3 million.
Last week’s box office champion Exodus: Gods and Kings slipped to fourth place in its second weekend, while The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 1 continued its strong run, finishing the weekend by ending up in the top five. Jean-Marc Vallée’s latest feature Wild made a significant jump in the charts, moving from number 10 last weeked to the sixth spot this weekend. The streak of Big Hero 6 and Interstellar ending up next to each other in box office rankings was also broken this week, as the former continued its placement amongst the top ten, while the latter was nowhere to be found.
Among limited releases, the two notable openers were Mike Leigh’s Mr. Turner and Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Winter Sleep. The former, which stars Timothy Spall as the titular character, painter J.M.W Turner, opened in five theatres following a festival run, earning $108,638 for a PSA of $21,728. Ceylan’s Winter Sleep, the reigning Palme d’Or champion from the Cannes Film Festival, earned $6,500 over the weekend from playing in only one theatre. The other limited release to make a mark was the Hindi language feature P.K., which earned $3.5 million in 272 theatres, good enough to snag the tenth spot at the US box office.
The top earners at the US box office for the weekend is as follows:
- The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies — $56,220,000
- Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb — $17,300,000
- Annie — $16,300,000
- Exodus: Gods and Kings — $8,065,000
- The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 1 — $7,750,000
- Wild — $4,150,000
- Top Five — $3,570,000
- Big Hero 6 — $3,563,000
- Penguins of Madagascar — $3,525,000
- P.K. — $3,500,000