LOS ANGELES -- The new year at the box office is off to a solid start thanks to holiday holdovers and newcomer The Woman in Black 2: The Angel of Death.
The third and final installment of The Hobbit series topped the box office for the third weekend in a row, according to studio estimates. New Line and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies made $21.7 million, raising its total haul in U.S. and Canadian theaters to $220 million.
Disney's Into the Woods came in second for the weekend with $18.7 million, and Angelina Jolie's Unbroken came in third with $18.2 million.
The musical Into the Woods, directed by Rob Marshall and starring Anna Kendrick, Emily Blunt, Meryl Streep, Chris Pine and Johnny Depp, has made $91 million in U.S. and Canadian theaters.
Films over the weekend pulled in an estimated $153 million total, up 8.4 percent from the first weekend of last year, and the box office is up 5.5 percent year-to-date, according to research firm Rentrak.
The biggest opening was The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death, in fourth place with about $15 million. Relativity Studios acquired the film, a sequel to the 2012 movie starring Daniel Radcliffe, for just $1 million. Even without Radcliffe, the sequel exceeded projections of $9 million to $11 million for opening weekend.
"I think early January has proved to be a really good place to position a horror movie," said Kyle Davies, Relativity's president of worldwide distribution.
The Tom Harper-directed film follows a group of orphaned children who are forced to move from their home in London to the British countryside. The film stars Jeremy Irvine (War Horse) and Helen McCrory (Skyfall). About 65 percent of moviegoers were younger than 25, and 53 percent were female.
"I think there was a pent-up demand for a horror film," Davies said. "This picture appealed to that core audience and they came out in big numbers for us."
20th Century Fox's Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb rounded out the top five with $14.5 million. It has made almost $90 million since its Dec. 19 premiere.
Meanwhile, Sony/Columbia Pictures rolled out its Seth Rogen-James Franco comedy The Interview to more independent theaters. In its second weekend, it grossed $1.1 million and raised its theatrical total to almost $5 million.
The studio released the film in 331 theaters on Christmas Day, and last weekend that number rose to 581. Sony also began offering the movie on video-on-demand platforms on Christmas Eve.
Updated video-on-demand grosses were not yet available but Sony reported the film had made more than $15 million on alternate platforms through Dec. 27.
Playing at 754 theaters, The Imitation Game, The Weinstein Co.'s code-breaker thriller about World War II hero Alan Turing, took in $7.8 million in its sixth week. (By comparison, The Hobbit played at more than 3,800 theaters.) The Reese Witherspoon drama Wild also added $4.6 million for a five-week $25.9 million total for Fox Searchlight.
Opening in limited release at four locations, J.C. Chandor's New York thriller A Most Violent Year debuted with a theater average of $47,000. The acclaimed A24 release, starring Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain, will soon expand.
Demand, though, was strongest for American Sniper, Clint Eastwood's drama about Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper). In its second week playing in just four theaters, American Sniper attracted a remarkable $160,000 per-screen-average. The film opens nationwide Jan. 16.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by Rentrak:
The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies, Warner Bros., $21,732,090, 3,875 locations, $5,608 average, $220,602,017, three weeks.
Into The Woods, Disney, $18,728,441, 2,538 locations, $7,379 average, $90,871,655, two weeks.
Unbroken, Universal, $18,169,840, 3,190 locations, $5,696 average, $87,651,495, two weeks.
The Woman In Black 2: Angel of Death, Relativity Media, $15,027,415, 2,602 locations, $5,775 average, $15,027,415, one week.
Night At The Museum: Secret Of The Tomb, 20th Century Fox, $14,518,274, 3,802 locations, $3,819 average, $89,847,179, three weeks.
Annie, Sony, $11,251,393, 3,166 locations, $3,554 average, $72,460,370, three weeks.
The Imitation Game, The Weinstein Co., $7,772,527, 754 locations, $10,308 average, $30,472,090, six weeks.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1, Lionsgate, $7,559,954, 2,505 locations, $3,018 average, $323,734,502, seven weeks.
The Gambler, Paramount, $6,332,559, 2,494 locations, $2,539 average, $27,601,711, two weeks.
Big Hero 6, Disney, $4,754,816, 1,913 locations, $2,486 average, $211,207,036, nine weeks.
Wild, Fox Searchlight, $4,564,093, 1,361 locations, $3,353 average, $25,880,904, five weeks.
Exodus: Gods And Kings, 20th Century Fox, $3,817,643, 2,260 locations, $1,689 average, $61,342,935, four weeks.
Penguins Of Madagascar, 20th Century Fox, $2,895,767, 1,585 locations, $1,827 average, $78,116,780, six weeks.
Big Eyes, The Weinstein Co., $2,610,026, 1,408 locations, $1,854 average, $9,924,025, two weeks.
Interstellar, Paramount, $2,460,071, 1,048 locations, $2,347 average, $182,802,094, nine weeks.
Top Five, Paramount, $2,139,861, 1,195 locations, $1,791 average, $23,740,325, four weeks.
The Theory Of Everything, Focus Features, $1,106,331, 651 locations, $1,699 average, $24,772,350, nine weeks.
The Interview, Sony, $1,085,515, 581 locations, $1,868 average, $4,960,726, two weeks.
Horrible Bosses 2, Warner Bros., $928,619, 702 locations, $1,323 average, $53,063,469, six weeks.
Birdman, Fox Searchlight, $860,582, 282 locations, $3,052 average, $25,424,568, 12 weeks.
MovieStyle on 01/09/2015