It might have faced some competition from both a musical and awards bait during the Christmas holidays, but Peter Jackson’s third root around in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, The Battle Of The Five Armies, came out swinging a giant battle axe to stay atop the US box-office charts for three straight weeks, earning $21.9 million this past weekend according to studio estimates.
Jackson’s latest has now passed $220 million in the States and has earned more than $722.8 million worldwide, which means it might make it past $1 billion (as with An Unexpected Journey), but could still fall short. Rob Marshall’s Into The Woods has been in the charts for two weeks now, and stayed in second place with $19 million, pushing its US total to more than $91.2 million. Angelina Jolie’s true-life tale Unbroken treaded water in third, taking in $18.3 million.
The only wide newcomer to the charts this week was horror sequel The Woman In Black 2: Angel Of Death, which has faced some mixed reviews and opened to $15.1 million. That’s lower than the original film, which had Daniel Radcliffe as a selling point and made it past $20.8 million in America on its opening weekend back in 2012. **Night At The Museum: Secret Of The Tomb **rounded out the top five with $14.4 million.
Annie, which has faced its own share of brickbats from critics, fell one place to sixth with $11.4 million, while The Imitation Game added a few screens and saw a jump to seventh with $8.1 million – the film has now passed $30.8 million. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 was down to eighth with $7.7 million, while The Gambler saw its fortunes fall from seventh to ninth with $6.3 million. Finally, Big Hero 6 managed to stay in the top ten despite being on release for nine weeks, and scored $4.8 million to boost its US earnings to $211.2 million. With several international territories, including the UK, still to conquer, it should prove to be another success for the resurgent Disney Feature Animation.
To see Bard the Bowman strike down an evil ghost in the full chart listings, head to Box Office Mojo.