Monday Morning Box Office Report: The Hobbit Strikes Gold

Posted by on December 17th, 2012   Filed under: Box Office

It seems that the mediocre reviews and 48 fps controversy did not have much of an effect on The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. The first movie in Peter Jackson’s new trilogy managed to set a record for best December opening this past weekend with a monstrous $84.7 million. That’s more than any The Lord of the Rings movies ever made in their first weekend although attendance was lower, and it’s still not quite at the same level as some of the year’s other biggest blockbusters like The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises and The Hunger Games. Approximately half of the ticket sales came from 3D screenings with the High Frame Rate version supposedly having the highest per-screen average. Elsewhere, Rise of the Guardians hung on to the #2 spot, while Skyfall fell to #4, just barely being bested by Spielberg’s Lincoln. The sort-of-biopic has now made an impressive $108 million, which is somewhat surprising for a period drama. Life of Pi rounded out the top 5.

1. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey — $84.8M
2. Rise of the Guardians — $7.42M
3. Lincoln — $7.24M
4. Skyfall — $7M
5. Life of Pi — $5.4M
6. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 — $5.17M
7. Wreck-It Ralph — $3.27M
8. Playing for Keeps — $3.25M
9. Red Dawn — $2.39M
10. Silver Linings Playbook — $2.08M



  • Steve

    I would have been surprised if the HFR controversy kept people away, considering that few people outside of film-geek circles give a shit about it. The theater I went to was just selling all the 3D tickets together, so I accidentally saw the 24p version. Then, naturally, snuck into the HFR version immediately after.

  • Croft

    And did you notice much of a difference?

  • Steve

    The difference is, as you would expect, quite striking. Everything looks very smooth. The first 5 minutes looked very odd, but after the prologue I was totally into it. The HFR works especially well for aerial shots and action sequences, and it does indeed make the 3D look very nice. I’m not sure how I would have felt about it if I hadn’t already watched the whole thing once, but I’d say it’s worth checking out.

  • Croft

    Cool, thanks for the heads up.