The New Year’s Day box office is the festive follow-up of the Christmas box office, but apart from its celebratory significance, 1 January 2015 does not remain loyal to 25 December 2014 charts. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies returned as a top position, thus becoming a box office lead for both 2014 and 2015 with a New Year’s Day total of $9,330,000. The Christmas box office ruler, Unbroken, kept a decent position in the top three titles of the chart with $6,950,000. If the Louis Zamperini drama ‘’celebrated’’ the New Year with a visible downfall, its Christmas follower, Into the Woods, reached an impressionable number 2 placement and grossed $8,081,110.
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies grew gradually as the New Year’s Day top box office title, starting with Monday (29/12/2014), when it gathered a total of $7,545,000 and was followed by a barely noticeable increase in the following day with $7,960,000. New Year’s Eve, nonetheless, met with a visible and threatening decrease, as 31/12/2014 brought the last Hobbit the modest sum of $6,000,000. The New Year’s Day, on the other hand, almost doubled figures, and Peter Jackson’s fantasy was crowned as king of the first box office report of 2015.
Deadline traced the New Year’s Day box office totals of all movies belonging to the Lord of the Rings franchise, starting with those pertaining to the Hobbit universe. Thus, An Unexpected Journey topped the list of the last three-released movies with a total of $9.45 million in 2013’s New Year’s Day and was followed by our Battle of the Five Armies with the already announced sum of $9.33 million. The least productive at the New Year’s box office was the year 2014, when The Desolation of Smaug gathered the total of $7.792. As for the Lord of the Rings movies, they most definitely surpass the Hobbits in terms of total sums in the New Year’s Day box office, with grand figures almost doubling the least productive Hobbit. The Lord of The Rings: The Return of The King grossed a total of $12.78 million in 2004; in 1 January 2003, The Two Towers gathered more than $11 million and 1 January 2002 met with The Fellowship of the Ring and $10.248 million.
Top 5 titles of the New Year’s Day box office of 2015 (via Pro Box Office):
1. The Hobbit: The Battle of The Five Armies – $9.33 million
2. Into the Woods – $8.08 million
3. Unbroken – $6.95 million
4. Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb – $5.92 million
5. Annie (2014) – $4.26 million