'Frozen' Desolates 'Smaug' At Weekend Box Office
Disney's winter-themed powerhouse Frozen kept the cash storm roaring as it took the top spot at the post-holiday box office this weekend, knocking The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug down to third place, after three weeks in the top spot.
Frozen raked in an impressive $20.7 million in its sixth week in theaters, bringing its domestic box office total to $297.8 million, and its worldwide take to $639.9 million. Frozen has become the second highest-grossing animated Disney film of all time, behind only The Lion King.
For the record, The Lion King earned $312.8 million domestically during its first run in theaters, and $987.4 million worldwide.
Also besting The Hobbit was the low-budget horror film Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones, which is a spinoff of the popular Paranormal Activity franchise, with all new characters and story. The Marked Ones took in $18.2 million, which is an impressive haul given the comparably low $5 million budget.
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Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones stuck with the visual formula that made its predecessors so successful, namely the found-footage style that the story is presented in, but went with a mainly Hispanic cast and set it in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood in an effort to corner that often underrepresented minority audience.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug tumbled two spots to third, pulling in $16.3 million for a box office total of $229.6 million domestically in its fourth weekend.
The first installment of The Hobbit trilogy followed a similar trajectory as Smaug, sitting at the top spot for three weeks before moving to the third spot in week 4. The difference being that the previous installment had already grossed $263.8 million in that weekend, putting Smaug over $34 million behind the first film in the series.
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Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street took the fourth spot, moving up from its opening spot in fifth-place during the crowded holiday weekend. It took in $13.4 million, bringing its total to $63.2 million.
In the film, Leonardo DiCaprio plays the real-life dishonest, scheming investment broker Jordan Belfort, who revels in a life of drugs and money until it all starts falling down around his head. The film has faced controversy from critics claiming that it glamorizes Belfort's actions and glorifies greed, a claim that DiCaprio and Scorsese have vehemently disagreed with.
David O. Russell's period crime-comedy American Hustle stole fifth place earning $13.2 million. The film -- starring Bradley Cooper, Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Jennifer Lawrence and Jeremy Renner -- is based on a real-life government corruption sting conducted in the 1970s.
