Monday Morning Mixer: Brr... it's 'Frozen' out there

Posted Monday, January 6, 2014 at 11:26 AM Central

by John Couture

If it were still the holidays, I would cue up some "Baby, it's cold outside" and just let the sweet dulcet tones of some questionable lyrics tell the story of this weekend's box office. But since it's the new year and all, I'll spare you the melody.

The chorus though is a familiar one as the ho-hum newcomer was unable to knock off the top dog returning movie. Although, there was some change at the top and as they say, some change is always good.

It is fitting given that an Arctic blast blanketed most of the country in chilly temps and pretty white snow while a similarly frost-bitten film was making snow angels at the box office. Grab your cup of hot cocoa and prepare to thaw out to the MMM.

Box Office 411

In its sixth weekend, Frozen leapfrogged back up into the top position mostly due to the lack of competition among family films and weak newcomers. But hey, a win is a win as my old ball coach used to say and while he was absolutely correct, the numbers put up by Frozen demonstrate that this is something more than a win by default.

Its $20.7 million weekend was good enough for third place all-time for sixth weekend performance, lagging behind only Avatar and Titanic. That's incredible when you think about it. What's even more impressive is that without a serious threat for the family dollars in the next few weeks, Frozen is poised to continue this impressive run.

Will it ever stop? I don't know. But what I do know is that my lame Vanilla Ice reference aside, this film is icing the competition and it's not even close. It may have surpassed $300 million by the time you read this and it's a good bet to ease on over $350 million here in the next couple of weeks. With its inevitable DVD/Blu-ray release still a couple of months away, one thing is for sure, this film is going to end up being one of the biggest performers and surprises from 2013.

The lone newcomer at the box office this week was the latest installment in the Paranormal Activity franchise. And while Paranormal Activity 4 was the low point in the series with just $53 million at the box office, Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones will struggle to even hit that number. The latest film opened up with $18.2 million, a whopping $10 million less than its direct predecessor.

Give the notorious short legs of this franchise, The Marked Ones might not even reach the $30 million mark. Of course, given the insane micro-budget of this film, that will still result in huge profits for the movie.

In other box office news, Catching Fire officially broke the $400 million barrier and is in a virtual tie with the original Hunger Games at around $408 million. Catching Fire should limp up towards $425 million in the coming weeks. Anchorman 2 broke the $100 million wall and officially outgrossed the first film. The Hobbit 2 broke $200 million and looks to be well on its way to an upper $200 million finish which is about $20 million less than the original film.

Quick Hitters

While we wait with baited breath for any information on Episode VII, there was a bit of Star Wars news this week. All of the Star Wars comics will go back under the Marvel umbrella beginning in 2015. Star Wars' comics were originally released by Marvel before Dark Horse Comics took over in 1991.

Disney owns both Marvel and LucasFilm now, so this isn't exactly the most surprising news. But still, it's something and keeps alive my hope of seeing an X-Men/Star Wars cross-over at some point.

Veronica Mars delivered its first trailer over the weekend.

I haven't watched the series yet (need to get on that before its March 14 release), but I thought it was rather unimpressive. Maybe, I'd have gotten more out of it if I were a Marshmellow, but alas I am not. Still, its scope is one of a feature film, so at least they put all of that Kickstarter money to good use. Also, filming right after Kristen Bell gave birth certainly gave Veronica Mars a couple of new assets that were lacking in the TV series as well.

Well, I always say that it's good to end on a nice trailer. So, this is the end. Enjoy and until next week, Mix Well!