So China experiences a smog problem around the release of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and you think it’s a coincidence? Think again buddy. You’re looking at the best kind of viral marketing. An advertisement so strong it could kill you. Wait? You’re telling me I’ve been pronouncing “Smaug” wrong and it’s “SmAUg” not “Smog”? That…that explains a bit.
Oh yeah, in terms of box office performances last weekend, Desolation of SmAUg nabbed first place raking in a cool $73 million. It wasn’t a good an opening as the first Hobbit, but it did a lot better than Return of the King. Goes to show a neat growing fandom. Frozen rests nicely in second (with 22 million), A Madea Christmas sadly hits the mark in third (with $16 mil), The Hunger Games: Catching Fire nabs fourth (with $13 million), and Thor: The Dark World is still hangin’ in there.
Hit the jump for the full list of performances for December 13-15.
[via Rentrak]1. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – $73,675,000
2.. Frozen – $22,184,000
3. Tyler Perry’s A Madea Christmas – $16,000,000
4. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire – $13,150,000
5. Thor: The Dark World – $2,700,000
6. Out of the Furnace – $2,320,000
7. Delivery Man – $1,872,000
8. Philomena – $1,756,000
9. The Book Thief – $1,675,000
10. Homefront – $1,637,000
