The Weekend Report

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug handily dominated weekend box office with an estimated debut frame of $73.7 million. The session’s only other national release, A Madea Christmas, made merry with $16 million and ranked third in the lineup.

Eyes were also fixed on a couple of awards contenders that dipped into the marketplace. Behind-the-scenes Mary Poppins opus Saving Mr. Banks opened to an impressive $422,000 from 15 chim-chim-cherees while Abscam-inspired American Hustle peek-a-boo’ed an eye-popping $683,000 on a mere six screens.

Bollywood sat out the frame but the considerably smaller Korean circuit saw good returns of S69,500 on Friend 2 at 14 venues.

Overall revenues climbed to $150 million plus to set a record for this particular weekend. It was a 57% improvement from last weekend and 7% better than the 2012 session when the debut of the first Hobbit film led the field with $84.6 million.

With just 10 shopping days to Christmas, domestic box office is sitting at $10.16 billion, a slim 1% behind last year’s pace with sufficient time to close the gap before cork-popping time.

While no one was diminishing the potent start of Hobbit 2, there was concern that part 2 was at about 13% less than last year’s inspiration on the domestic front. The film added roughly $130 million from day-and-day releases in 49 foreign climes and that was roughly on par with 2012 results according to studio tracking.

Critically, Smaug was generally received warmly, following the tepid response accorded the first trek. It should be more than capable of withstanding the year-end onslaught of new films with (and likely) and without figuring into kudos mania.

The film skewed 60% male and had an opening audience that was 64% aged 25-years and older in North America. Close to half the audience opted for 3D engagements and the 344 IMAX locations accounted for 12.5% of the opening gross.

The decidedly counterprogrammed A Madea Christmas found its niche in a season where most in that position have come up short. The film had a different target audience ethnically and drew a 67% female audience. Its 25-year old plus viewers comprised 63% of opening weekend business.

On the slippery slope known as awards season, every step is precarious, and both Banks and Hustle could breathe easily… for the moment. Expansions of Nebraska and Llewyn Davis also cleared their respective hurdles effectively while Dallas Buyers Club and All is Lost are beginning to falter  although both have staked out real estate in acting territories and should be able to maintain commercial visibility into the New Year.

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