By Erich Schwartzel
Should auld acquaintance be forgot? For the film industry,
yes.
Moviegoing revenue in the U.S. and Canada ended 2014 down 5.3%,
according to box-office tracker Rentrak Corp.--the worst results
since 2011. Ticket sales for 2014 are also down, but final data on
the year isn't out yet.
Studios and exhibitors now looking to the new year for some hope
got good news this weekend, with grosses up 5.5% over the same
weekend last year.
The continued success of "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five
Armies" and strong second weeks for Christmas releases "Into the
Woods" and "Unbroken" helped lead the gain.
"The Hobbit" held the top spot in its third week with estimated
box-office sales of $21.9 million in the U.S. and Canada. The final
adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy, distributed by
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. and the New Line division of Time Warner
Inc.'s Warner Bros., has collected $220.8 million so far.
"Into the Woods," the Walt Disney Co. adaptation of the Stephen
Sondheim musical, fell 39% to $19 million for a cumulative $91.2
million.
"Unbroken," the Angelina Jolie-directed story of World War II
bomber Louis Zamperini from Comcast Corp.'s Universal Pictures,
grossed $18.4 million in third place for a total of $87.8 million
so far.
The weekend's only new wide release, "The Woman in Black 2:
Angel of Death," opened to a decent $15.1 million in fourth place.
That's behind the 2012 debut of the original "Woman in Black,"
which opened to $20.9 million and went on to gross $54.3 million.
The second installment, which doesn't feature the original's star
Daniel Radcliffe, takes place 40 years after the original film, and
follows a group of London orphans and caretakers who move into a
haunted house.
The PG-13-rated sequel was acquired for distribution by
Relativity Media LLC for $1 million. The studio targeted the early
January release--a popular one for horror films--to appeal to
younger audiences still on break from school, said Kyle Davies,
president of world-wide distribution. About 65% of the
opening-weekend audience was under the age of 25.
In other box-office news, "The Interview," the controversial
comedy starring Seth Rogen that was initially pulled from theaters
for its Dec. 25 opening only to be reinstated days before, expanded
its limited release to 581 locations.
The movie, about a pair of television journalists asked to
assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, drew the ire of
hackers thought by U.S. officials to have ties to the Communist
country. Its studio, Sony Corp.'s Sony Pictures Entertainment,
pulled the movie after threats of violence were made against
theaters expected to show the movie; it was eventually released
simultaneously to independent operators and a collection of online
services.
That distribution ubiquity, which increased during the past week
as several video-on-demand providers came on board to show the
film, ate into its theatrical business. The movie grossed $1.1
million this weekend, compared with $2.8 million in 331 theaters
last week. Sony didn't release updated figures on the movie's
online grosses, which were more than $15 million in the first
week.
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