Tops at the Box Office: 'The Hobbit' beats back 'Jack Reacher' for #1

1. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey- $36.7M/$149.8M
Yes, The Hobbit managed to hold on to #1, keeping a handful of major new releases at bay, but that 57% drop off is pretty steep. At this rate it's clear The Hobbit isn't going to do the business of the prior three movies, and will have to lean more heavily on its international profile to pull in a substantial profit. Right now it's pushing $290M worldwide, so a pretty good distance from the $1B of Return of the King.

2. Jack Reacher- $15.6M
Why would you put an action-heavy genre film like this in the midst of the award season? Because it stars Tom Cruise, and last year at this time he was doing big business with Mission: Impossible-Ghost Protocol. Jack Reacher isn't quite on that level in terms of scale or cost, so the fact it did roughly half the wide release business isn't as big of a deal. It still shows Cruise has the goods to bring in audiences who want to see him kick butt and take a few names. The question is whether it will do well enough to be the franchise-starter they were hoping for.
3. This is 40- $12M
The Apatow brand continues to lose its luster. For a "sequel" to Apatow's popular Knocked Up, it appears audiences paid attention to the ads enough to realize this really has practically nothing to do with it, and has a tone similar to the quite unpopular Funny People.
4. Rise of the Guardians- $5.9M/$79.7M
5. Lincoln- $5.6M/$116.8M
6. The Guilt Trip- $5.4M/$7.4M
It's obvious the hope for a movie like this was to bring in families looking for something light and supposedly funny to see after opening their Christmas presents. But....well....no. That plan didn't work. This new Seth Rogen who is doing more dramedy than comedy lately simply isn't much of draw, and adding Barbra Streisand into the mix only served to confuse matters.
7. Monsters, Inc. 3D- $5M/$6.5M
These Disney 3D re-releases were cool at first, but now nobody cares. Hey, we have these on Blu-Ray already!
8. Skyfall- $4.7M/$280M
9. Life of Pi- $3.8M/$76.1M
10. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn pt. 2- $2.6M/$281.6M

Whoa!! Zero Dark Thirty got off to a huge opening in limited release. Opening in only five locations, Kathryn Bigelow's hunt for Osama bin Laden film average $82K for a hefty $639K.

Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away 3D was little more than a novelty, but a successful one with $2.25M on only 840 sites.

Potential Oscar film The Impossible opened at only 15 locations and earned $139K.


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