The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies started its box office run Tuesday night with a good opening and just wrapped up its first full day in wide release, earning $24.5 million.
As previously reported, the film opened with limited early showings Tuesday, earning $11.2 million. Now, early estimates for Wednesday put its first full day at $24.5 million. The film will be showing at 3,875 locations this weekend.
Battle isn’t expected to do as well as the last two installments on their opening weekends. An Unexpected Journey started with $84.6 million in 2012, while last year’s The Desolation of Smaug opened with $73.6 million.
Considering that this is the last time Peter Jackson is taking moviegoers to J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-Earth, it might do better than Smaug. Box Office Mojo is predicting a $91 million five-day opening, but that seems a bit on the high end.
Also opening this weekend is Fox’s Night at the Museum: The Secret of the Tomb and Sony’s Annie. Considering all of the hullabaloo about The Interview, Sony could use a hit from Annie, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. The Hollywood Reporter notes that the film is expected to only gross around $15 million.
All three of these films will face a glut of competition on Christmas Day. Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken, Disney’s Into The Woods and Paramount’s The Gambler all open that day.
image of ‘Hobbit’ star Martin Freeman courtesy of INFphoto.com