UPDATE, 8 AM FRIDAY: Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues took in another $5.1M on Thursday for a total 2-day cume of $13.2M. Paramount is still expecting a $30M three-day weekend, although industry analysts are downgrading that estimate to below $30M. Only time will tell as it enters a very packed weekend. It is, however, one of the few comedies in the marketplace now. 
The promotion its star Will Ferrell has done in pre-release the picture has been significant , everything from a spot for Dodge to speaking on college campuses. This pre-holiday opening weekend for all new pics is just a warm-up for next week. The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug is doing well this week with another $5M added for a to date cume now of $96M. Expectations are for it to be No. 1 this weekend. American Hustle played strong last night in 2,215 theaters for another $1.1M and Sony is expecting a mid-to-high teen million dollar gross for the three-day.
PREVIOUS, THURSDAY AM: It’s like rush hour in Los Angeles at the nation’s box office this weekend with four more titles merging into the marketplace in wide release on what is The Hobbit: Desolation Of Smaug’s second weekend out. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, having opened to a $2.3 million midnight on Tuesday night for a stellar $8M Wednesday total, looks on track for a $40M-$45M five-day opener and a $30M three-day total in 3,4550 theaters. (I will be looking at both the three-day to compare apples and apples and the five-day, of course), according to Paramount. One distrib noted that the opening was better than the Wednesday opening of Little Fockers three years ago December which clocked in at $7.1M that day and went on to grab a three-day total of $30.8M. In that instance, Fockers opened on Christmas Eve when many theaters are dark so its not exactly comparing app les with apples. Anchorman 2 also received a B Cinemascore, probably because the first 45 minutes were much stronger than the last 45 minutes, according to exhibs.
Meanwhile, The Hobbit: Desolation Of Smaug is headed for another strong weekend and is expected to pull in another $30M-plus over the three-day. Its cume to date with is now $91M as it continues to hold in 3,903 locales. And Thor: A Dark World is just days away from crossing the $200M domestically mark for Disney and Marvel with its cume now at 199.1M.
American Hustle, which had phenom per screen averages last weekend (over $123,000 per), goes wide for Sony on roughly 2,507 screens. The David O.Russell film is finding its success across demos playing equally well with adult male and females. Not surprising. This strong ensemble piece of Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence is likely to gain strong positive word-of-mouth and have a good weekend. Sony expects a mid-to-high-teen million dollar weekend and a strong multiple … yep, expect long tail on this one.
Competing for Disney’s Frozen family audiences, comes Fox’s Walking With Dinosaurs stomping in on 3,231 locations, but unlike Frozen, the dinosaur movie is made for 3D eye candy. The majority of theaters for Walking With Dinosaurs are 3D theaters – 84% to be exact. With Frozen already having established itself as a solid performer for families and adults, Disney is turning its attention this weekend to Saving Mr. Banks hoping to grab more attention for the film about Walt Disney securing the rights to Mary Poppins from its very proper and unwilling author played by Emma Thompson. Last weekend’s limited release saw smaller than hoped for numbers for the entertaining, story-dr iven film.
Also opening in limited release is Warner Bros.’ Her starring Joaquin Phoenix, and Sony Pictures Classics’ The Past which was just nominated for a Golden Globe as the Best Foreign Language Film and won Best Actress at Cannes for its star Bérénice Béjo.
For more estimates listed by title, see box office results here...
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