Warner Bros. reports that The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug earned an estimated $31.15 million on Friday, putting it on pace for a likely $75 million weekend. Those figures include the film’s $8.8 million earned from midnight shows, representing just over 28 percent of opening day grosses–an improvement over the 35 percent midnight share of opening day for last year’s An Unexpected Journey. IMAX accounted for 13 percent ($3.979 million) of Friday’s haul. Overall, Smaug‘s opening day was 16 percent lower than its predecessor ($37.1 million).
Smaug‘s projected opening weekend will end up close to expectations following what looked to be lower grosses last night. Winter weather may be affecting things, although the lower share of midnights indicates that fans may have indeed been the audience sector where the most upfront demand was lost (as opposed to general audiences) in the wake of last year’s mixed reception for the first Hobbit entry. Early word of mouth appears solid for Smaug so far with an “A-” CinemaScore and 88 percent of Flixster users liking or still anticipating seeing the film. With a crowded holiday schedule ahead, this second Hobbit pic is aiming to maintain most of its core family audience through Christmas and New Year’s while also bringing in stronger overseas sales than Journey.
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Last Wednesday we told you that MSN UK was celebrating the opening of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug by requesting Skype messages from fans, asking questions of actor Martin Freeman. See which questions were chosen from fans all over the world, and find out what Freeman had to say, in the video below.
Continue reading “Martin Freeman answers fans’ questions on MSN UK”
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While we put our finishing touches on the official Ringer Reviews section, we thought it would be fun to collect your immediate reaction to The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug right here on this post. (That is of course IF the film has released in your country)
If you are new to commenting on TheOneRing.net, we use a rather popular system called Disqus, located at the bottom of every article page. You can decide to login with Facebook, Twitter or Google, or you can simply comment as a guest.
Comments are moderated, so please play nice 🙂 The basic rules? Don’t swear and treat others with respect. If you are posting spoilers, please be nice and post a SPOILER WARNING before your comments. Our staff will be working around the clock to get your comments approved. And as you can see by the diversity of our own staff reactions to the film, you can be as positive or negative about the film as you’d like. We will not be moderating based on your review.
Then, stay tuned in the next few days when we raise the curtain on the new Ringer Reviews for The Desolation of Smaug. Along with the ability to post your comprehensive review of the film, you will have the chance to rate 20+ specific aspects of the film. Details coming soon.
So what are you waiting for? Sound off!
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We’ve teamed up with always awesome LOTRProject to track fan sentiment coming out of Desolation of Smaug. As evidenced by the varied reviews by our own staff, fans are either going to fall in love all over again or scratch their heads asking, “why PJ, why?!” In an effort to follow what fans worldwide really think of The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug, LOTRProject has assembled a visual twitter tracking page of fan opinions of #TheHobbit and any of the characters.
Tweet your true feelings with #TheHobbit
- Did you find the film amazing and fulfilling?
- Who is the most popular Desolation character, by tweet mentions?
- Do fans love the changes Peter Jackson has made to the story?
Tag your tweets with “Desolation of Smaug” or “hobbit” or #thehobbit along with your immediate reaction to seeing Desolation. We will continue to monitor fan reactions through the weekend, and look for the relaunching Ringer Reviews section in the coming days to voice your full nuanced opinions!
Check it out: RECEPTION OF SMAUG http://lotrproject.com/analysis/dos/
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Join your fellow Ringers from around the world as we gather to experience opening night of ‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.’ For folks in the US, that’s happening at midnight tonight, and there are Line Parties happening at theatres across the country. Share your Line Party photos and fun by using #TORnHobbitLP on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Share pics of costumes, your responses to the film, and other activities happening in your Line.
After opening night, share photos from your Line Party with us at spymaster@theonering.net.
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Dan Hennah, Academy Award winner and nominee just last year, talked about Middle-earth movies and “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” with TheOneRing.net last week while he stood inside the re-creation of Beorn’s house! Hennah and his wife Chris run the Art Department of Peter Jackson’s Hobbit movies and from concept to shoot day, makes the items and sets happen. He is a pretty incredible guy, right up there with Peter Jackson and Richard Taylor as one of New Zealand’s most amazing individuals. Part of our series of video interviews to get you ready for the World Premiere of the newest Middle-earth film!
See also: An interview with Martin Freeman
And: An interview with Richard Armitage
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