Anchorman 2 opened this weekend. Crazy, right? Seems like I’ve hardly heard anything about it. Maybe try marketing it next time, bros. Anyway, Anchorman 2 actually lost its debut weekend to The Hobbit: Desecration of Smaug in its second weekend. The Hobbit earned $31.45 million domestically for the top spot, with Anchorman 2 just behind with $26.776 million. $26 million doesn’t seem like a lot for a movie with so much hype, but the gross of course doesn’t factor in how much they made on calendars, scotch, cologne, Dodge Durangos, underpants for horses, and whatever other Ron Burgundy tie-ins there were.
Another important note is that whereas the first Anchorman made only $5 million internationally, the sequel has already grossed $13.5 million in its first six locations. Hooray, now your incessant quoting will work anywhere!
Playing at 3,507 locations, Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues opened to $26.8 million this weekend. That’s below the first Anchorman’s $28.4 million debut, though it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison: Anchorman 2 burned off some demand with a Wednesday start, and opening weekends in December are historically much lower than those in July (when the first movie opened).
For the five-day frame, Anchorman 2 earned an estimated $40 million. Both of the Meet the Parents sequels also opened on the Wednesday before Christmas—Meet the Fockers brought in $70.5 million, while Little Fockers earned $45.1 million. [BoxOfficeMojo]
No one was crying, because the overall box office was way up compared to last year ($139 million vs. $97 million, up 37%). Sequels seemed to be the order of the day, with sequels making up six of the top 10 at the US box office. Traditionally thought of as a weekend where movies compete with Christmas shopping, some studios chose to save their releases for Christmas Day, which this year brings Wolf of Wall Street, Her, Walter Mitty, Grudge Match, and the Mandela. And after that, it’s two months of ancient curses and car fights. But that’s cool, guys, keep releasing all the good movies in the same three-week period.
Dhoom 3 isn’t a typo, that’s actually the biggest-ever opening for a Bollywood film in the US, for a three-hour heist movie about circus performer/magicians (the Indian Now You See Me?). Its $14,000 per-screen average isn’t particularly noteworthy, but the trailer looks kind of awesome:
I don’t know what the hell just happened, but I think I liked it.
[Numbers via BoxOfficeMojo]