Maybe it was over-marketing, maybe it was the opening date before a big holiday, either way Ron Burgundy's big return to theaters with "Anchorman 2" wasn't as big of a deal as Paramount hoped.
Estimates that had the film making around $30 million opening weekend were spot on.
The film performed worse than its original in a three-day span ($28.4 million). That film opened up nearly a decade ago in 2004.
In the long run, the movie will do fine, but maybe opening up the weekend before Christmas wasn't the smartest idea. Historically, it's just a slower time of the year.
Numbers for "The Hobbit" are pretty low compared to the first film, too. However, that could be because many people still aren't into the idea of a child's book being stretched into three movies.
Then, there are limited releases that are killing it. Warner Bros.' "Her"— a movie about a man (Joaquin Phoenix's) falling in love with an operating system — had a huge weekend making $258,000 in six theaters over the weekend.
Many of films fell out of the top ten this week.
Judi Dench's "Philomena,""The Book Thief,""Homefront" all fell from the top ten. The worst crash was Relativity's "Out of the Furnace" starring Christian Bale which has managed to make $10.9 million in three weeks.
Here are the winners and losers in Hollywood this week:
10. "Thor: The Dark World" rounds up the list this week with another $1.3 million. This should be the God of Thunder's final week at the top of the box office with so many new releases out Christmas day. In total, the film has brought in $627 million for Disney and Marvel.
9. Bollywood film "Dhoom 3,"a Chicago thriller about a circus man planning to rob the show's owners out of revenge had a big $3.3 million weekend.
8. Family film "Walking with Dinosaurs" flopped opening to $7.3 million. The film is performing better overseas so far bringing it to $21 million worldwide. A lot of holiday competition shouldn't help this film in the following week.
7. "Tyler Perry's A Madea Christmas" took a big hit in week two making $8.5 million. The film has made $28.3 million to date. With so many movies out at once right now, difficult to see why this film was needed right now.
6. "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" continues its successful run with another $8.8 million bringing the sequel's total up to $765 million worldwide.
5. "Saving Mr. Banks" rounds up the top five moving up 13 spots in its wide release with $9.3 million.
4. Another wide release this weekend, "American Hustle" debuted to $19.1 million. The David O. Russell film featuring Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams, and Jennifer Lawrence had a large debut last weekend with $740,455 in six theaters.
3. Disney's "Frozen" narrowly beat out "American Hustle" with $19.2 million in its fifth weekend. (Mind you, it had the edge in more than 1,000 theaters.) The Mouse House's latest animated film has made $344.2 million worldwide.
2. "Anchorman: The Legend Continues" failed to crack $30 million over its 3-day opening weekend with $26.8 million. Still the film made $40 million since last Wednesday which is in line with Paramount estimates. The original made $28.4 million opening weekend back in 2004.
1. Not a surprise that "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" made $31 million this weekend. Though it beat out "Anchorman," that's no mighty triumph. Compared to all of the other "Hobbit"/"Lord of the Rings,""Desolation" comes in dead last. The second weekend for "An Unexpected Journey" was $36.9 million.
