Weekend Box Office Report: January 2-4, 2015

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

The Hobbit still rules them all!

On the first weekend of the new year, audiences went there and back again to put THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES at the top of the box office for a third week with an estimated $21.9 million!

The final chapter of Tolkien's Middle Earth tale is now up to a $220.7 million domestic total, outpacing THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG at this point in release. The worldwide total for THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES is now up to $722 million.

In second place was the fairy tale musical INTO THE WOODS with $19 million, down 38% from its opening last week as it creeps up on $100 million since its Christmas Day release. Standing strong in third was director Angelina Jolie's inspirational war drama UNBROKEN with $18.3 million, a 40% drop from its first weekend.

Opening in fourth place was the weekend's only new offering, the PG-13 supernatural sequel THE WOMAN IN BLACK 2: ANGEL OF DEATH, with $15.1 million. Hammer Films' follow-up to their Daniel Radcliffe frightener, which opened with $20.8 million back in 2012, didn't seem to deliver satisfying chills to critics (24% on Rotten Tomatoes) or crowds ('C' CinemaScore).

In fifth was Ben Stiller's NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: SECRET OF THE TOMB with $14.4 million as it still struggles to reach $100 million domestic, followed by the update of the classic musical ANNIE in sixth with another $11.4 million.

Award contender THE IMITATION GAME moved up a spot to seventh with $8.1 million, calculating a $30.8 million total on 750 screens. The Benedict Cumberbatch-starring biopic of mathematician Alan Turing had the highest per-screen average in the Top 10, and was also the only release on the chart to improve over last weekend's take.

THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY PART 1 was in eighth with $7.7 million as it nears $700 million worldwide, surpassing the $691 million global total of the first THE HUNGER GAMES. Though it's sliding down the list, MOCKINGJAY's domestic total still has a good chance of besting GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY as the highest-grossing 2014 release.

Mark Walhberg's remake of THE GAMBLER dropped to ninth place with $6.3 million (a 31% drop from its opening), while Disney's BIG HERO 6 surged back into the Top 10 as it crossed the $200 million mark this past week and collected an additional $167 million from international audiences.

Outside the chart, Reese Witherspoon's WILD and Ridley Scott's big-budget Bible epic EXODUS: GODS AND KINGS slipped out of sight. Tim Burton's BIG EYES is up to nearly $10 million total, while in limited release, the Oscar Isaac/Jessica Chastain drama A MOST VIOLENT YEAR debuted with a solid $47k per-screen average, Civil Rights drama SELMA continued its movement with $29k per-screen, and Clint Eastwood's AMERICAN SNIPER once again hit the target with an impressive $160k per-screen average in its second week.

Next weekend features Liam Neeson demonstrating his particular set of skills for a third time in TAKEN 3, while SELMA and Paul Thomas Anderson's INHERENT VICE expand from limited release.

What January release are you most interested in seeing? VOTE HERE!