BOX OFFICE REPORT (DEC. 28-30): 'The Hobbit, 'Django Unchained' and 'Les Miserables' Close Out 2012 with a Big Weekend

This was quite the Christmas weekend at the box office, with the top three films all coming in around the $30 million mark. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey held onto the No. 1 spot, while it and Jack Reacher only dropped just over 10 percent from the previous weekend. Les Miserables had a stronger Christmas week, but Django Unchained pulled ahead when it came to the weekend itself. Regardless of which new release came in No. 2, they both had excellent weekends.

Beyond the top five slots, Lincoln and a handful of other movies saw their numbers go up, buoyed by the holiday. Zero Dark Thirty only played in five theaters but still managed to gross a whopping $63,000 per screen. For comparison, The Hobbit only averaged $8,029 per screen. Skyfall continued its record-setting ways by becoming just the fourteenth movie to ever cross the $1 billion mark at the international box office. This is now the second year in a row to have three films accomplish that feat, with 2012 having Skyfall, The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises and 2011 having Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2, Transformers: Dark of the Moon and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

Expect The Hobbit, Django Unchained and Les Miserables to dominate again next weekend, with Texas Chainsaw 3D being the only new wide release.

1. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (1)
$32.92 million ($222.70 million)
After its third weekend, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is playing in more theaters than any of its The Lord of the Rings brethren but is behind all but Fellowship of the Ring when it comes to total domestic gross. I'm having trouble getting a good read on An Unexpected Journey's box office power, since, despite what I just told you, the film has actually had the best first and third weekends of any of Peter Jackson's Middle-earth movies. What happened during weekend No. 2 to drag An Unexpected Journey down?

2. Django Unchained (N)

$30.69 million ($64.01 million)

Django Unchained opened to less than Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds did in 2009, but $30.69 million isn't bad for a bloody film about a slave-turned-bounty hunter that just happened to be released on Christmas. Inglourious Basterds collected its $38.05 million opening weekend during August, a much more appropriate time for a Tarantino flick.

3. Les Miserables (N)

$28.03 million ($67.47 million)
I was going to write something about comparing Les Miserables' opening weekend gross to The King's Speech's opening weekend gross, but then I realized that Les Miserables is director Tom Hooper's first film to have a real opening weekend. The King's Speech got a slow-burn release, building steam after its award-season buzz started kicking in.

4. Parental Guidance (N)

$14.80 million ($29.59 million)
If you contributed any money to the $14.80 million this stale comedy rehash made, I want you to think long and hard about what you did. I'm not angry. I'm just disappointed.

5. Jack Reacher (2)

$14.01 million ($44.66 million)

While I didn't have the chance to catch either Django Unchained or Les Miserables during Christmas week, I did see Jack Reacher (yeah, I have no idea how that happened myself). The film's not bad. If it made more than the $44.66 million it's made so far, I wouldn't have a problem with that.

Next week's predictions:

1. Django Unchained

2. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

3. Les Miserables

4. Texas Chainsaw 3D

5. Jack Reacher

SOURCE: Box Office Mojo