Well, 2014 ended on a very strong box-office note with weekend profits up 8% from last year and 17% from 2012. Holding the line at #1 this weekend was Warner Bros.' “The Hobbit: Battle Of The Five Armies” which only fell 24.3% from last weekend, exhibiting a terrific hold. The movie has grossed a spectacular $405 million internationally. That means after three weeks of release (only two domestically), the final ‘Hobbit’ film stands at $573 worldwide. Hitting the billion mark (‘An Unexpected Journey’ got there, ‘Smaug’ fell short by about $50 million) seems extremely doable at this point ('Five Armies' could also become the highest grossing film of 2014 worldwide if it can best the $1.087 billion that ‘Transformers 4’ reached earlier this year). Critics may be a little tired of the film (and our review was way generous in my opinion), but audiences, especially those abroad, are definitely on board (though don’t tell Peter Jackson this, cause he may renege on his plans to make a...
