The Hobbit opens to record breaking numbers in North America

Peter Jackson's return to Middle-earth broke records this weekend as The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey debuted at number one with $84 million in tickets sold surpassing the openings of any of the previous Tolkien adaptations and breaking the record for a December opening.  It's a strong start for the trilogy and the movie should fare very well over the Christmas holiday and into the new year.  Critically, it isn't quite the darling the original Lord of the Rings movies were, and the word of mouth isn't nearly as strong.  It will be interesting to see how strong the hold is next week.  There are some very vocal supporters of this film and a lot of ambivalence.  No one is calling The Hobbit a bad film, but there's a lot of complaints that it is pointlessly long, an assertion that's difficult to debate.

You're going to hear a lot of debate about The Hobbit in coming weeks.  It's a polarizing film creatively and financially.  While it may be the biggest Middle-earth themed film to date, it did benefit greatly from inflated 3D and IMAX ticket prices.  The Return of the King opened to $72 million in 2003 without inflated ticket prices and no 3D bump.  When you start breaking down the math, The Hobbit has sold less tickets in the opening weekend than Return of the King.  That's something to take note of. Especially considering that Return of the King cost around $90 million dollars to make, whereas each Hobbit film is rumored to come in at $250 million dollar each (some are claiming it's closer to $200 million per picture). 

At two and a half times the budget, for the movie to make the same money is kind of baffling.  I realize that film budgets have gone through the roof in recent years and you can barely make any spectacle tent pole film for less than $150 million dollars.  And I don't for a minute think that The Hobbit films will end up losing money for the Warner/New Line/MGM amalgam that has produced these monstrosities. However, each of The Lord of the Rings films had to make around $250 - 3$00 million to break even in their theatrical release, which they did without issue.  Each Hobbit movie has to make around $500 - $600 million, which I'm pretty sure they'll have no problem getting to.    Still, it's interesting that in 10 years, the budget for a Tolkien inspired adaptation has nearly tripled.  That kind of math is a staggering indoctrination of just how fast these budgets have escalated and forced these franchises into a make or break kind of performance that requires massive returns with little margin for error.

The rest of the top five is nothing more than the wake created by The Hobbit.  Rise of the Guardians picked up enough scraps to take second place with $7.5 million dollars.  Lincoln continues to be the go-to film for more mature ticket buyers once again settling into third place with $7 million in tickets sold.  Skyfall took in another $6.7 million, and Life of Pi made another $5.6 million to take the fifth spot.

While this week was a one movie show, next weekend should be fairly interesting.  There are three major releases next week including the Seth Rogen comedy The Guilt Trip, Tom Cruise stars in the highly anticipated Jack Reacher, and Judd Apatow returns with a pseudo-sequel to Knocked Up with the comedy This Is 40.  Expect The Hobbit to stay at number one.  I doubt any of these films have the stones to take down Tolkien.  See you next week.

Here's your top films for North America...

1. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Weekend Estimate: $84 million

2. Rise of the Guardians
Weekend Estimate: $7.5 million; $71 million total

3. Lincoln
Weekend Estimate: $7 million; $107 million total

4. Skyfall
Weekend Estimate: $6.7 million; $272 million total

5. Life of Pi
Weekend Estimate: $5.6 million; $70 million total

Anghus Houvouras