'The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies' Easily Wins Weekend Box Office Bringing in $90 Million From Director Peter Jackson
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies opened this weekend and as expected, dominated the box office. The sci-fi/adventure movie brought in $90.6 million during its five-day debut according to THR.
Ben Stiller's movie Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb sequel, which opened to a rather low $17.3 million.
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is directed by Peter Jackson and written by Jackson, Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, and Guillermo del Toro and based on The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien. The battle waged between the Goblins and the Wargs against Men of Dale, Elves, Dwarves, Eagles and a Shape-shifter on and near the Lonely Mountain.
The movie stars Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Evangeline Lilly, Lee Pace, Luke Evans, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ken Stott and James Nesbitt. It also features Cate Blanchett, Ian Holm, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving and Orlando Bloom.
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is produced by New Line Cinema, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and WingNut Films; and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.
The first 'Hobbit' movie An Unexpected Journey (2012), grossed a staggering $1 billion worldwide. The sequel The Desolation of Smaug (2013) was a bit less successful, bringing in $953 million worldwide. Along with speaking about the final movie, Jackson also reveals that there will be an extended cut of "Desolation of Smaug" with 25 minutes of new scenes.
Jackson wrote on his Facebook, "...And there's also The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Extended Cut, which we're in the process of finishing, with over 25 mins of new scenes, all scored with original music composed by Howard Shore."