By Jeff Rosz | January 20th, 2013  Earlier today, the international figures came in for the weekend’s box office statistics to make it official. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has now passed $900 million worldwide to become the third Tolkien film to reach the mark. This is a pretty big deal considering Warner Bros. still has two more of these puppies in the pipeline with significant budget advantages as director Peter Jackson shot The Hobbit trilogy back-to-back-to-back for less than $600 million.
Of course, the elephant in the room is the race towards $1 billion which appears to be inevitable. Sunday’s official number had An Unexpected Journey north of $919 million, and while the last milestone ($800 million) was notched two weeks ago, a Chinese release in mid-February should aid the effort rather nicely. A better question might actually be to ask whether the film will pass $300 million domestic first or $1 billion worldwide. The Martin Freeman-led blockbuster is still $13 million shy of the important North American box office milestone even after banking another $6 million this past weekend.
By Jeff Rosz | January 6th, 2013  On a weekend won by more cheap horror from Lionsgate, the headlines appear to be stolen from the on-going success of Peter Jackson’s first Hobbit movie, An Unexpected Journey. A week after hitting $700 million worldwide, the blockbuster scooted past $800 million on its way to a very respectable box office haul. While the fantasy epic still lags all of its predecessors, it definitely appears as if an outright embarrassment from its studio backer Warner Bros. will be in the cards as the holidays helped this movie save face tremendously following a somewhat disappointing domestic opening. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | January 6th, 2013  This weekend’s box office came out as advertised. The lone outlier of predictions was that The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey dropped 45% instead of the 30% which is odd. A very similar thing happened after New Year’s Day for its Lord of the Rings counterparts so this should not be too surprising. Fans of the flick who were hoping for a healthier box office take (which might convince studios to make more of this breed of film) should be aware that An Unexpected Journey’s predecessors all started to see massive retention at $10 million. A relatively weak January box office should guarantee that. The fantasy flick currently stands north of $250 million regionally. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | January 2nd, 2013  When The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey premiered in theaters, there was not a whole lot for Warner Bros. to be excited about. The film polled to audiences far below The Lord of the Rings in terms of shear popularity as its first Friday barely edged Return of the King’s debut Wednesday nine years ago. Seeing how that date for Peter Jackson’s trilogy capper did not land on any holiday, a head-to-head comparison between the two looked horrendous given the fact that the latest competition released three weekend’s prior. While the first 72 hours grossed higher for An Unexpected Journey, having a Saturday and Sunday certainly helped fuel the Tolkien record as well as ticket price inflation coupled with 3D premiums. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | December 30th, 2012  Not much has changed since the Christmas Day box office numbers in terms of the top three. The mix definitely shifted as the hype train left the station, but for the most part all these features remain in great form, especially The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey which is pulling an Avatar in terms of post-release success. While the comparison may be unfair, it would appear that Peter Jackson’s latest will pull in over $30 million this weekend to follow up a pretty successful week two.
1. The Hobbit - $32.9 M/ $222.7 M
2. Django Unchained – $30.7 M/ $64.0 M
3. Les Miserables - $28.0 M/ $67.5 M
4. Parental Guidance - $14.8 M/ $59.6 M
5. Jack Reacher - $14.0 M/ $44.7 M
6. This Is 40 - $13.2 M/ $37.1 M
7. Lincoln - $7.5 M/ $132.0 m
8. The Guilt Trip - $6.7 M/ $21.1 M
9. Monsters, Inc. 3D – $6.4 M/ $18.5 M
10. Rise of the Guardians - $4.9 M/ $90.4 M
The big winner this week is not in the top ten though as James Bond’s latest Skyfall has finally passed the top ten after two months of release. Doing 71% of its business overseas, the pic rode high praise and a ton of free publicity thanks to the Summer Olympics to becomes the third billion dollar pic this year.
By Jeff Rosz | December 27th, 2012 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey hit its first major box office milestone today as the film found its way past $500 million. Having opened on December 12 in parts of the world, it took the film a whole lot longer to pass the mark than anyone originally thought it would thanks in part to a weak performance relative to The Lord of the Rings trilogy. While some would point the finger at current events for disparaging traffic on the domestic end, the reality is that global business is split roughly the same as when Middle-Earth last hit the big screen, suggesting something else might be awry with Peter Jackson’s latest Tolkien-based movie. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | December 16th, 2012  The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is off to a blistering start. It may come as a shock to many, but the movie did not gross into the 9-figures this first weekend like many had anticipated. Instead, The Hobbit rode a $37.5 million opening day (includes the $13 million from midnight showings) to $84.8 million which is only the sixth biggest debut of the entire year.
Some cynics might be quick to judgment and blame a rushed project which was still editing on the first day of press screenings, but for the most part that was not the issue. This is in regards to the tragic shooting that took place Friday. While the last event of this nature was more of a direct blow to the movie industry, these displays of senseless violence always have historically impacted box office performances in a negative way. It is with that in mind that Warner Bros. should feel fortunate that they have found some level of success with their new prequel trilogy; however, we note that circumstance beyond Peter Jackson’s control impacted this blockbuster occasion. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | December 14th, 2012 Here is the tenth video blog for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. We assume it will be the last for this first leg of Peter Jackson’s prequel trilogy, but we certainly expect more for The Desolation of Smaug and There and Back Again. The better question to wonder might actually be when those might begin to roll-out as audiences are just 364 days away from cramming into theaters yet again to continue their voyage back to Middle-Earth. As for the topic of today’s footage, it basically covers the final work that went into the film and getting it ready for its very first press screening. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | December 14th, 2012 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has started its theatrical run with a bang. The prequel opened late last night to big audiences accounting for $13 million in box office cheddar. That is a December record and it clearly foreshadows a big weekend that many believe will break another monthly record–the one for best three-day take currently held by I Am Legend which debuted to $77.2 million five years ago.
This number for An Unexpected Journey was bolstered by IMAX sales which included a free poster and a sneak peek at Star Trek Into Darkness. While the poster was time period only, the 9-minutes of Trek footage still runs on those screens which will continue to be a big draw going forward. In total, $1.6 million of that $13 million midnight premiere were for the IMAX format.
While new estimates are not exactly out based on the most recent figures, $90 million looks to be a possibility at this time. If not, that is still okay. The Peter Jackson-directed pic has already found $27.3 million in overseas revenue from 42 markets making this one heck of a start to what promises to be a very profitable trilogy for Warner Bros. going forward.
By Jeff Rosz | December 12th, 2012  The ‘Game of Riddles’ movie clip has finally hit the web for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. We previously only saw the television promo for this scene, but since the straight footage has landed online it certainly warrants the mention. This is considered by many to be THE scene in An Unexpected Journey which is not exactly a shocker considering it was actually the only bit of The Hobbit rewritten by Tolkien himself after finishing Lord of the Rings. The rest of the book is technically a children’s novel. Head on over to Facebook for the look. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | December 11th, 2012  The first bit of tracking has come online for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, so I will share these initial figures very briefly. THR has the report that the studio is marking An Unexpected Journey down for at least $70 million during the first three days of release. The number is a bit disappointing as it comes on par with Return of the King’s opening nearly a decade ago with no 3D, no IMAX premiums, and cheaper ticket prices overall; however, it should be noted that this is the floor and that studios like to downplay things as much as possible in order to create a false sense of accomplishment. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | December 10th, 2012 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opens at the end of the week, and so the final television marketing push has begun. Spot number twelve has made it to the net, featuring some new dialogue from scenes we have already witnessed with slightly more Thorin than usual. Go ahead and check that out if that is your thing. As for the initial reaction for this feature, we already have that as the $270 million blockbuster has already been reviewed by a handful of critics that say the pic is good, not great. Those same people remain split on acceptance of the film’s 48 fps which is playing in select locations via the 3D format. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | December 7th, 2012 Out of the ten plus Hobbit spots released before today, none of them compare to the awesomeness of the official ‘eleventh’ (more like twentieth) spot which captures one of the best moments in An Unexpected Journey. This is the Game of Riddles scene in which Andy Serkis’ Gollum and Martin Freeman’s Bilbo Baggins meet, equating to pure excellence for the Tolkien fans among us all. Hit the jump to check it out. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | December 7th, 2012  Earlier this week, audiences of The Colbert Report witnessed appearances by Bilbo Baggins player Martin Freeman and Gandalf himself, but last night was director Peter Jackson’s time to shine. In addition to spearheading the effort for the original Lord of the Rings trilogy, he is also firmly behind all three Hobbit outings thus why we care what he has to say at the matter and find any such appearance relatively interesting. Production completed on the pic back in July, but that was before Warner Bros. added a third outing to The Hobbit so keep in mind all this promotion being had is before shooting has wrapped. It is expected that five to six more weeks of filming will take place after the new year. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | December 6th, 2012  There is a new extended television promo out for The Hobbit: The Unexpected Journey. This one does feature a little extension of a scene with Martin Freeman’s Bilbo Baggins and Andy Serkis’ Gollum at the end which is why most will care about this one. For the most part, the lead up to that is all the same stuff audiences have seen several times over, so feel free to pass if you are getting tired of the one-ad-a-day pace Warner Bros. seems to be pushing leading up to release. Continue Reading
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