‘Hobbit’ Finale Rolls Past ‘Woman in Black’ Sequel and Crosses $200 Million

“The Hobbit” The Battle of the Five Armies” held off the horror movie “The Woman in Black: The Angel of Death” at the box office Friday and seized the inside track for its third consecutive weekend win.

The final film in Peter Jackson’s “Hobbit” trilogy took in $8.3 million on Friday and is heading for a $22 million haul this weekend. Universal’s “Unbroken” and Disney’s “Into the Woods” weren’t far behind with around $7.4 million each, and both should come in at around $19 million for the three days.

“The Woman in Black: The Angel of Death” was second Friday with $7.7 million (including $1.5 million from Thursday shows), and will likely finish its opening weekend with around $16 million.

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That’s under the $20.9 million that the first “Women in Black” film debuted with on Super Bowl Sunday in 2012, but the solid first weekend assures that it will be a financial win for Relativity. It acquired the sequel, which features newcomer Jeremy Irvine stepping in for the CBS Films original’s Daniel Radcliffe as star, for $1 million earlier this year.

“Hobbit” movies have dominated the holiday box office for the past three years and rolled up more than $2.6 billion globally for distributor Warner Bros.

Friday’s haul raises the domestic total for “Battle of Five Armies” to $207 million since opening on Dec. 17 and its worldwide haul is well past $670 million. The New Line–MGM coproduction is pacing ahead of the two earlier films in the series, “An Unexpected Journey,” which totaled $303 million domestically in 2012, and last year’s “The Desolation of Smaug,” which hit $258 million in North America.

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The holiday box office continued to percolate and is running about 15 percent ahead of last year’s New Year’s weekend. And despite the dominance of “The Hobbit,” several holdover films are cashing in over the holidays.

By Sunday, Disney’s Broadway musical adaptation “Into the Woods” and the Angelina Jolie–directed Louis Zamperini biopic “Unbroken” will both have totaled around $90 million domestically since opening on Christmas Day. And Fox’s “Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb” is right there with those two and also will hit $90 million this weekend. The family film brought in $5.9 million Friday and should come in at around$15 million for the three days.

The Weinstein Company’s “The Imitation Game” and Lionsgate’s long-playing “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1” will finish the weekend with around $8 million after both took in just under $3 million Friday.

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On that pace, the TWC awards hopeful will top $31 million domestically in its sixth week, while the Jennifer Lawrence sci-fi epic will cross $320 million in North America and is bearing down on $700 million globally in its seventh week.

The Mark Wahlberg crime drama “The Gambler” was ninth on Friday with $2.5 million, which projects to a $6.6 million second weekend. That would up its domestic total to $30 million for Paramount.

Reese Witherspoon’s “Wild” continued to expand strongly its fifth week. Fox Searchlight added 76 locations Friday and the survival saga brought in $1.7 million. It should finish with around $4.7 million over the three days, which will lift its domestic haul to roughly $26 million.