“The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” powered to with $16.5 million at the Friday box office, and the finale in Peter Jackson’s Middle Earth trilogy is heading for a five-day total in the $85 million range for Warner Bros.
The weekend’s two other wide openers — “Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb” and the Sony musical “Annie” – were battling for second. The Fox comedy sequel took in $5.6 million on Friday, a little ahead of the big-screen version of the Broadway hit, which brought in $5.3 million. That puts both on track for a $17 million-$18 million weekend total.
That’s better news for “Annie,” which analysts had projected would come in at around $15 million, than it is for the “Night at the Museum” sequel, which had targeted an opening north of $20 million.
On its current pace, New Line and MGM’s “Battle of the Five Armies” will take in around $55 million over the standard three-day weekend and beat analysts’ predictions for the five days by about $10 million. It earned an “A-” CinemaScore and the positive word of mouth should help it through the holidays.
The solid opening by “Annie,” suggests that it won’t be hurt too badly by its posting online after the Sony hack attack along with four other of the studio’s movies. Writer-director Will Gluck’s big-screen take on the hit Broadway musical stars Quvenzhane Wallis and Jamie Foxx received an “A-” CinemaScore. Audience members liked it more than the critics, who have it at 28 percent positive on Rotten Tomatoes.
Fox had hoped for more from “Secret of the Tomb,” which stars Ben Stiller and the late Robin Williams and arrived in theaters five years after the second sequel. That one opened to $54 million in May of 2009 and the original debuted with $30 million in December of 2006. This one won’t come near those numbers, and it has a hefty $127 million production budget.
Last week’s No. 1 movie, “Exodus: Gods and Kings,” was fourth Friday with $2.2 million and is looking at an $8 million second week for Fox. That’s a 67 percent plunge from last week for Ridley Scott’s Biblical epic.
It was running neck-and-neck with Lionsgate’s “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1,” which is bearing down on $300 million at the domestic box office. The Jennifer Lawrence sci-fi tale will also wind up in the $8 million range after taking in $2.2 million Friday.