The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies took the final box office of the year with a $41.4 Million weekend according to BoxOfficeMojo, which isn’t half bad for a Tolkien movie in holiday months. I mean, it’s no Return of the King, but at least they didn’t go full Jar Jar Binks with this one. That being said, I’ll be the first to admit that the CGI wasn’t terribly great for the past three movies. A few prosthetics here and there would have done wonders, but hey, I’m not the one making millions of dollars in a single weekend here.
Angelina Jolie’s new film about an American WWII prisoner of war, Unbroken, also did pretty well for itself, taking in $31.7 Million for a solemn, dignified box office total. What, did you expect a joke on this one? Oh no. No no no, that’s not happening. Angie is conducting herself far too professionally and gracefully for my crass internet jokes.
Like The Hobbit, Into The Woods went through more than a few changes as it transitioned to the big screen. I think the main difference is that Tolkien nerds are a lot more vocal and present than theater nerds, so not much was made of it. And as far as I can tell, the general reaction to the big screen adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s 1987 musical Into The Woods has been positive, and it even made $31 Million this weekend. So all in all, not bad!
Night At The Museum: Secret of the Tomb is still limping its way through its theatrical run, earning $20.6 Million this weekend. The good news is that’s about a 20% jump up from last week, and chances are it’ll make its money back internationally. If it’s lucky, Museum might be able to do a long distance run like How To Train Your Dragon 2, but time will tell on that one.
The Interview actually didn’t make it to the top five (it landed in the sixteenth spot), mostly because it played in only a fraction of the theaters as its competition did. That being said, it still managed to make $1.8 Million on 331 screens, which is respectable. That being said, it managed to make $15 Million online according to Variety, which is great when you consider that (A) it costs drastically less to watch a movie online than in theaters, and (B) multiple people can watch the same movie for the price of a single person. Combined, that actually signals a pretty healthy reception.
Jeremy Feist is an (ahem) entertainer from Toronto, Canada. He writes, acts, and performs on stage, and has been a writer for Popbytes for almost three years now. He lives in Toronto with his boyfriend, his incredibly dumb but cute puppy, and his immortal cat.
