Hollywood Set To Rake In Record $10.9B At Box Office For 2013

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A busy holiday weekend at the box office has helped put Hollywood on track to rake in a record $10.9 billion in ticket sales this year.

KNX 1070's Ed Mertz reports domestic ticket sales jumped with this weekend's strong showing, led by "Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug."

For the second consecutive weekend, "Hobbit" was the number one film at the box office with about $30 million, followed by "Frozen" in second with $28.9 million and "Anchorman 2" in third with about $20 million, according to industry estimates.

Paced by this weekend's sales, total domestic ticket sales for the industry rose one percent above the record set two years ago and up around 10 percent over the same weekend last year, according to movie analyst Paul Dergarabedian.

With tent-pole releases such as "Iron Man," "Hunger Games," and "Frozen" helping to boost overall tickets sales, Dergarabedian said 2014 could be even better.

"If you look at the options for entertainment that are out there, it shows that people still want to go out to a movie theater, have that communal experience, look at a big screen, and have that completely immersive time at a movie theater," he said.

"American Hustle" scored a fourth place finish with $19.6 million in sales for a three-week total of $60 million, just above "The Wolf of Wall Street," which opened this week in fifth place with $18.5 million.

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