Because it was the first “The Hobbit” film to open on a Wednesday (prior to the start of the weekend), “The Battle of the Five Armies” naturally had no chance of matching the opening weekend marks for predecessors “An Unexpected Journey” and “The Desolation of Smaug.”
But because it was an eagerly anticipated “The Hobbit” film, it had no trouble claiming #1 at the weekend box office.
“The Battle of the Five Armies,” which had earned $34.4 million ahead of the weekend, added $56.2 million during the Friday-Sunday period. Its cumulative gross now stands at $90.6 million.
Because of the different calendars, apples-to-apples comparisons between “The Battle of the Five Armies” and the other two “Hobbit” films are not valuable. Both “An Unexpected Journey” ($84.6 million) and “The Desolation of Smaug” ($73.6 million) earned more during their first weekends, but their five-day marks ($100.2 million for “Journey,” $86.1 million for “Smaug”) do not possess the same advantages.
Of course, insofar as a Wednesday-Sunday calculation is not equivalent to a Friday-Tuesday one, it is not as if the five-day comparisons are particularly relevant either.
What is relevant, however, is the extent to which “The Hobbit” obliterated the rest of the weekend box office. “Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb” followed with a mere $17.3 million, while “Annie” was good for $16.3 million.
Down a whopping 67% from last week, “Exodus: Gods and Kings” claimed #4 with just $8.1 million. “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1” settled for fifth on the strength of $7.8 million.
Also noteworthy this weekend? “PK,” which earned $3.5 million and #10 despite only launching on 272 screens.
