Frozen Moves Back Into the Top Spot

In its sixth weekend of wide release, Disney’s Frozen returned to the top of the box office last weekend (Jan. 3-5) with a take of $19.58 million. The weekend marked the second time that Frozen has led the weekend box office (the other time being Dec. 6-8) despite being down 32 percent from the previous weekend. Frozen has grossed $296.69 million to date, placing the film on the brink of reaching the $300 million domestic milestone. When it does, the movie will become the fourth release of 2013 to do so joining Iron Man 3, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Despicable Me 2.

Anna, Kristoff and Sven the reindeer meet Olaf the snowman. (Photo: Walt Disney Animation Studios)

Paramount Pictures’ Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones debuted in second place with $18.34 million. While the spin-off to the high-profile horror franchise opened an underwhelming 37 percent less than the $29.00 million debut of 2012’s Paranormal Activity 4, The Marked Ones had been expected to display a drop-off due in part to its spin-off nature. The film is also still performing relatively well considering its reported $5 million production budget. In recent years, early January has proven to be a good time of year to open horror films.

After leading the box office for the past three weekends, Warner Bros.’ The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug was down two spots to third last weekend with $15.68 million. The three Lord of the Rings films and last year’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey all experienced at least 40 percent declines the weekend after New Year’s Day and that trend continued with The Desolation of Smaug, as it fell 46 percent last weekend. The Desolation of Smaug has grossed $229.06 million through 24 days of release.

Paramount’s The Wolf of Wall Street and Sony Pictures’ American Hustle found themselves in a close race for fourth. The Wolf of Wall Street ultimately had the edge for fourth with $13.23 million, while American Hustle followed in fifth with $12.40 million. Both films held up well, as The Wolf of Wall Street was down just 28 percent and American Hustle was down 34 percent. Respective total grosses for the awards season hopefuls stand at $63.13 million for The Wolf of Wall Street after 12 days and at $87.92 million for American Hustle after 17 days of wide release. It should be noted that American Hustle was significantly less expensive than The Wolf of Wall Street.

In other box office news, Paramount’s Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues surpassed the $100 million domestic mark last weekend after placing in sixth with $10.63 million. While the long-awaited comedy sequel starring Will Ferrell hasn’t quite been the holiday season break-out many thought it could be, the film has still grossed a solid $108.71 million through 19 days of release.