Hobbit finale rolls into action

Warner Bros-New Line-MGM’s fantasy epic grossed an estimated $11.3m from 11 opening days on December 10 heading into an initial weekend launch of 14,000-plus screens in 37 overall.

The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies opened number one in all 11 markets and set opening day records for the year-to-date in eight led by $3.2m in Germany on 1,442 including Tuesday midnight previews.

France generated $2.8m from 914 including previews and Sweden delivered $1.5m from 443, while Norway produced $1m from 311 for the second biggest opening day of all time behind Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 1.

The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies arrived in Holland on $638,000 from 220 and Finland on $499,000 from 195.
New Zealand midnight shows sold out on 105 screens from 55 sites for $141,000.

December 11 brings new launches in 17 territories, among them Russia, Brazil, Mexico and New Zealand, with a further eight to follow on December 12 including the UK. Japan welcomes the film on December 13.

Beyond that, The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armieswill open in South Korea, Italy and Spain on the weekend of December 17, the US on December 19 and China on January 23.

The film grossed $298,000 from 21 runs on December 10 led by the Pathe Spuimarkt in The Hague on $27,268, Cineplexx IMAX
Donauplex 13 in Vienna on $22,388 and the Potsdamer Platz in Berlin on $20,019.

1B WW

Speaking of which, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (review) opened in a number of overseas territories on Wednesday, and thus far the Peter Jackson epic has earned $26.6 million in its first two days of international play. The third-and-final film in the second Middle Earth trilogy opened in the UK on Friday and opens in Japan today. I’ll try to update as best as I can, but (all due respect), Warner is generally pretty late about dropping overseas grosses. As of now, I can tell you that it scored the biggest Warner Bros. (Time Warner TWX -1.43% Inc.) opening day of all time in Russia and scored the biggest opening day of the year in New Zealand. Overall, it’s running ahead of The Desolation of Smaug in pretty much every comparable market.

Around-the-World Roundup: 'Hobbit' Finale Opens to $122 Million Overseas

A week ahead of its U.S. debut, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies began its international victory lap this weekend.

Playing in 37 markets—and only seven major ones—the finale of Peter Jackson's second Middle Earth trilogy earned a massive $122.2 million. Its top territory was Germany, where its $20.5 million debut was easily the biggest of the year.

It also had huge openings in the U.K. ($15.2 million), France ($15.05 million), Russia ($13.75 million), Brazil ($6.8 million), Mexico ($6.3 million), and New Zealand ($1.8 million). It wasn't particularly impressive in Japan ($2.4 million), though it's rare for a live-action import to do much business there.

Unbroken and Mockingjay Part II are released soon.

Oh yeah, I meant Part I. You can see how desperately I want it to end.

another 10-20 billion from everywhere else.