Weekend Box Office Dec. 27-29: 'Frozen' Reigns, 'Ronin' Fails

The weekend after Christmas belongs to the youngsters. At least that's what the traffic at the box office this weekend suggests. The top movie for the weekend is going to be, according to early estimates, "Frozen." The animated movie is in its sixth weekend of release, but it's beating all of the week's new releases, as well as "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug," which has held the top spot since its release on Dec. 13.

"The Hobbit" is still holding on well, though, and it will likely take the second-place spot for the weekend. Right behind it is "Anchorman 2"; the comedy sequel never held the first-place slot despite its relentless pre-release marketing campaign, but it's outperforming its predecessor and doing respectable business.

Behind the top three movies there is a jumble of films in the middle of the pack. "American Hustle" is jostling with "The Wolf of Wall Street" in a battle for older audiences, and "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" is in a similar struggle with "Saving Mr. Banks." None of these films is achieving outstanding performance, but they're doing well enough to avoid being labeled as disappointments.

The same can't be said for three other recent releases. Keanu Reeves' "47 Ronin" is set to take in about $21 million for the weekend, but that's an inadequate gross considering the film's $175-million budget; Universal was so sure that the movie would underperform that the studio took an official financial loss on the project before it was even released. The boxing comedy "Grudge Match" is flailing, too; it is struggling to make $14 million in its first five days of release. Justin Bieber's concert documentary "Believe" is doing much worse than that; it will pull in about $4.5 in the five days since Christmas. That's not enough to cover its $5-million production budget, let alone its relatively modest $5-million marketing budget.