‘The Hobbit’ tops box office this weekend, PK makes its presence felt

There were three huge releases in theatres this weekend, ‘The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies,’ ‘Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb’ and ’Annie.’ But The Hobbit beat them all with a landslide. Nearly fifteen years since taking on the Middle Earth books by J.R.R. Tolkien, filmmaker Peter Jackson brought the epic series to a close with the finale to his prequel trilogy, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, once again starring Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Ian McKellen, Orlando Bloom, Evangeline Lilly and more. The franchise finale debuted at 3,875 locations and easily trumped tracking which predicted a debut in the $70 million range. For its inaugural three-day weekend, the fantasy adventure earned $56.2 million.

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 uninspiring $17.3 million. Sony, which is reeling from its cancellation of ‘The Interview’ amid hacking attacks, unveiled its other holiday option. The studio's ‘Annie’ remake opened with $16.3 million. Down a whopping 67% from last week, ‘Exodus: Gods and Kings’ claimed #4 with just $8.1 million.

‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 settled for fifth on the strength of $7.8 million. Also noteworthy this weekend ‘PK,’ which earned $3.5 million and #10 despite only launching on 272 locations in North-America.