--- description: But compared to the rest of the Hobbit films, The Battle of the Five Armies didn’t fare as well title: 'The Hobbit' Wins Weekend Box Office Battle image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7dfb6c2880f0bfce/6987704b3c1639c41d450cc1/hobbit-movie.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [movies](/tag/movies/) ## movies Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # _The Hobbit_ Wins Weekend Box-Office Battle by [Entertainment Weekly / Ariana Bacle](/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Entertainment Weekly / Ariana Bacle Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 21, 2014 8:16 PM CUT  'The Hobbit' 'The Hobbit'Mark Pokorny—Warner Brothers by [Entertainment Weekly / Ariana Bacle](/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Entertainment Weekly / Ariana Bacle Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 21, 2014 8:16 PM CUT Although there were three huge wide releases in theaters this weekend, the third and final _Hobbit_ beat them all by a landslide. The Peter Jackson film brought in $56.2 million over the weekend (and $90.6 million since its Wednesday opening), while _Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb_ and _Annie —_ all films showing in more than 3,000 locations — made almost $40 million less. This is a win at the weekend box office, but compared to the rest of the _Hobbit_ films, _The Battle of the Five Armies_ didn’t fare as well: The first film in the trilogy made $84.6 million its opening weekend while the second took in $73.6 million. The 23 percent drop in opening weekend grosses between the second and third film could be due to a number of things, including movie fatigue. The book — yes, singular book — the films are based on is just over 300 pages, but each movie is at least two hours long. You can only stretch one story so much, and _The Hobbit_ has been stretched… and stretched… and stretched. Like _Battle of the Five Armies,_ the most recent _Night at the Museum_ is the third in a trilogy — one that audiences also aren’t as jazzed about anymore. The first opened with $30.4 million and the second with $54.2 million, but the third opened with a comparatively lackluster $17.3 million. The lesson here? Don’t wait five years to make a sequel to a film that didn’t probably didn’t need a sequel to begin with. _Annie_ was neck and neck with _Night at the Museum_ and made just one million less than the Ben Stiller flick. Although _Annie_ is full of star power — the cast includes Jamie Foxx, Cameron Diaz, and Quvenzhané Wallis (who’s already nabbed a Golden Globe nod for this role) — it also got a ton of bad reviews. _Exodus: Gods and Kings_ and _The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1_ were able to keep spots on the top five this weekend — but this will likely be their last weekend in the upper ranks, as _Into the Woods,_ _Unbroken,_ and _The Gambler_all open wide next weekend. **1\.** [**_The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies_**](http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20483133%5F20883832,00.html "undefined") **_—_** **$56.2 million** **2\.** [**_Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb_**](http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20483133%5F20884491,00.html "undefined") **_—_** **$17.3 million** **3\.** [**_Annie_**](http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20483133%5F20883399,00.html "undefined") **_—_** **$16.3 million** **4\.** [**_Exodus: Gods and Kings_**](http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20483133%5F20881395,00.html "undefined") **_—_** **$8.1 million** **5\.** [**_The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1_**](http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20483133%5F20874139,00.html "undefined")**– $7.8 million** _Wild_ made its way to the number six spot this weekend with $4.2 million after adding nearly 1,000 locations. _Top Five_ ($3.6 million), _Big Hero 6_ ($3.6 million), and _Penguins of Madagascar_ ($3.5 million) followed close behind, while the Indian sci-fi comedy _PK –_ a film only in 272 locations – rounded out the top 10 with $3.5 million. [_This article originally appeared at EW.com_](http://insidemovies.ew.com/2014/12/21/box-office-report-the-hobbit-annie/ "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3643262/hobbit-battle-five-armies-weekend-box-office/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3643262/hobbit-battle-five-armies-weekend-box-office/"},"headline":"The Hobbit Wins Weekend Box-Office Battle","datePublished":"2014-12-21T20:16:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T03:02:40.077Z","description":"But compared to the rest of the Hobbit films, The Battle of the Five Armies didn’t fare as well","url":"https://time.com/3643262/hobbit-battle-five-armies-weekend-box-office/","keywords":["movies"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7dfb6c2880f0bfce/6987704b3c1639c41d450cc1/hobbit-movie.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Entertainment Weekly / Ariana Bacle"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7dfb6c2880f0bfce/6987704b3c1639c41d450cc1/hobbit-movie.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"'The Hobbit'","caption":"'The Hobbit'","creditText":"Mark Pokorny—Warner Brothers","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3643262/hobbit-battle-five-armies-weekend-box-office/","name":"The Hobbit Wins Weekend Box-Office Battle"}}]}] ```