It’s beginning to look a lot like … another record-breaking year for Hollywood at the box office.
With the relatively strong performance this past weekend of “The Hobbit” and “Anchorman 2,” the US box office in 2013 stood at $10.43 billion, according to Boxofficemojo.com — about $400 million shy of the all-time record of $10.8 billion set last year.
With a US economy that continues to recover, stock markets that hit record highs last week and a strong lineup of films yet to unspool this year, Hollywood insiders are expecting the box office record to fall again.
In the last 11 days of last year, the box office totaled roughly $438 million. This year stands to finish with a flourish outpacing 2012’s — the box office has surpassed last year’s each of the past three weeks.
“It’s a great, great start to the finale of 2013,” Chris Aronson, president of domestic distribution at Twentieth Century Fox, told The Post.
Studios are releasing seven movies on Christmas Day and then there’s still the final weekend of the year to go, when The Weinstein Co. releases “August: Osage County,” starring Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts.
Warner Brothers’ “The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug,” took the top spot last weekend with $31.5 million. Paramount Pictures’ “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues,” was No. 2 with a box office of $26.8 million. The weekend take is up 31 percent over the corresponding weekend last year, according to one studio insider.
The average price of a ticket is up just 9 cents, to $8.05, according to Boxofficemojo.com.
While there have been big failures such as Disney’s “Lone Ranger” and Sony’s “White House Down,” among others, studios have in general been producing content that has something for everyone.
“There wasn’t ‘The Avengers,’” but there’s just this huge swath of films that a lot of people went to see. When you have something for everyone that’s when the movie business works.”
“Iron Man 3” from Disney’s Marvel is the top movie of the year, grossing $409 million. That’s less than 2012’s box office champ, “The Avengers,” but moviegoers also loved Lionsgate’s “Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” Universal’s “Despicable Me 2” and Warner’s “Gravity,” all top-six perfomers.
Still to come Christmas Day are: “The Wolf of Wall Street,” “47 Ronin,” “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” “Justin Bieber’s Believe,” “Grudge Match” and “Lone Survivor.”
While domestic box office performance is critical, international numbers were also robust this year, says Aronson.