Preliminary numbers at Deadline suggest that more adults showed up at the multiplexes for the Saturday of this holiday weekend, boosting some of the less family-centric attractions. THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG (Warners/MGM) appears to have unseated FROZEN (Disney) for the day and possibly the 3-day weekend, with Hobbit up slightly to $10.5M and Frozen down even more slightly to about $10M. (That number for Smaug looks a little less great when compared to the parallel Saturday for last year’s An Unexpected Journey, $1.1M ahead at $11.6M.)
The adult bump really showed up in the next tier down, where AMERICAN HUSTLE (Sony) was up a strong 13% to $7.2M in its increasingly successful run. Remarkably, that may tie or even beat ANCHORMAN 2: THE LEGEND CONTINUES (Paramount), which held even on Saturday and is also estimated at around $7.2M. Both were ahead of THE WOLF OF WALL STREET (Paramount/Red Granite), but Wolf, too, had a good day, up 8% to $6.8M. Wolf, though, cost more to produce than Hustle and Anchorman together, so its uphill climb is a steeper one. Also, that $6.8M for Wolf is way behind the $11.4M for the parallel Saturday of Django Unchained, last year’s R-rated Christmas Day epic.
SAVING MR. BANKS (Disney) continued to gather momentum, up another 6% to $5M. THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY (20th) gained a slimmer 3% to $4.8M (with a production cost triple that of Mr. Banks), while the next tier down held 47 RONIN (Universal) and THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (Lionsgate), both up a tad to $3.5M or so–of course, for Catching Fire, that brings its total to about $388M, and for Ronin to a painful $17.5M. GRUDGE MATCH (Warners) and A MADEA CHRISTMAS (Lionsgate) brought up the rear of the top titles at $2.7M each, both up for the day but at the point where the dollars are meager even if the percentages look OK.
About the Author
