Weekend box office: Anchorman 2 and The Hobbit battle for first

Brad Sturdivant December 22nd, 2013

Weekend box office Anchorman 2 The Legend Continues

It’s hard to recapture glory so many years after the original, but with the insane amount of marketing Will Ferrell and Adam McKay did for ANCHORMAN 2: THE LEGEND CONTINUES, it was almost impossible for the film not to do well. I’m not sure hovering around $30 million at the weekend box office is what the studio had in mind, but to be fair, the first Anchorman made $28 million when it opened back in July of 2004. It’s hard to call it a success or a failure, so the real story might come from the international box office. The first one didn’t make hardly anything overseas, so it will be interesting to see if the sequel can make an impact in other countries. We also had the wide releases of the Oscar chasing AMERICAN HUSTLE as well as Disney’s revisionist history, SAVING MR. BANKS. Both films are doing moderately well, which should strengthen their Oscar hopes. On the opposite end of the spectrum is WALKING WITH DINOSAURS, which didn’t fare so well. I guess dinosaurs don’t have the same appeal as they used to.

Wednesday is Christmas Day and we’ll get a slew of new releases, most notably THE WOLF OF WALL STREET. It would have been great to get Wolf earlier, but hopefully the film will be worth waiting for. We also get the Ben Stiller starring THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY, which was supposed to be a hot Oscar property, but the studio has backed off that and now it seems like they’re just hoping it doesn’t tank. Note: the numbers below will be updated as they become final.

1. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug $30.3m

2. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues $28.5m

3. Frozen $21.5m

4. American Hustle $19.6m

5. Saving Mr. Banks $9.8m

6. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire $8.9m

7. Tyler Perry’s A Madea Christmas $8.6m

8. Walking With Dinosaurs $2.3m

9. Dhoom 3 $2.2m

10. Thor: The Dark World $1.3m

(Deadline)