The grand finale of Peter Jackson's journey to J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-Earth is here at last, and analysts are saying it's going to open big.
Really big.
Opening last night, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies has an extended opening weekend during which it can rake in its Lonely Mountain-sized riches. Warner Bros. expects that opening weekend to be around $75 million, but tracking numbers suggest it could hit $80 million or even higher.
That would put its domestic opening higher than the second film, The Desolation of Smaug ($73.6 million) but below that of the first, An Unexpected Journey ($84.6 million). And both of those opened on Fridays, compared to Five Armies' Tuesday/Wednesday opening.
An $80+ million opening would still be more than enough to put Five Armies well ahead of the three Lord of the Rings films, which opened with $47.2 million, $62 million, and $72.6 million respectively. It's worth noting that the Rings trilogy bested its own numbers with each new release, whereas so far, The Hobbit's grosses declined after the first movie.
Still, Warner Bros. should be giddy at this weekend's box office prospects. Anticipation is high for this one, since it's expected to be Peter Jackson's Middle-Earth swan song. The film is already playing overseas and brought in an impressive $122 million for its international opening weekend.
