Sunday, October 6, 2024

The Hobbit, Hobbled, or Desolation of Sequel: Third Installment Running $23 Mil Behind

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It’s a good thing this is the last “Hobbit” movie. “Battle of the Five Armies” should have been called “Take Five.” Numero three is running $23 million behind “The Desolation of Smaug” and even more lag from the first “Hobbit” movie. After six Tolkien movies, audiences are finally exhausted. Apparently so is this thin story stretched over three films. People are having Middle Earth fatigue.

After its third day of release, the “Unexpected Journey” had made around $85 mil compared to “Armies” $50 million. “Smaug” had about $73 million comparably. Please God, there’s no origins movie or biopic about Tolkien, or heaven forbid, a reboot of the whole thing with Adam Driver as Frodo.

Meantime, Sony suffers. “Annie” made $5.3 million in its very wide opening. Unless it really improves Saturday and Sunday afternoon with kid and family audiences, this will be a bust. The sun will not come out on Monday.

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.

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