'Frozen' Skates to a Chilly No. 1 - Wall Street Journal

Updated Jan. 5, 2014 4:57 p.m. ET

"Frozen" topped the box office over the weekend as bitter winter weather chilled receipts along the East Coast.

The animated musical from Walt Disney ^[1] Co. DIS -0.21% ^[2] Walt Disney Co.^[3] U.S.: NYSE ^$76.11 -0.16 -0.21% Jan. 3, 2014 4:00 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 4.05M AFTER HOURS ^$76.11 0.00 0.00% Jan. 3, 2014 7:31 pm Volume (Delayed 15m): 7,499 P/E Ratio 22.25 Market Cap $133.75 Billion Dividend Yield 1.13% Rev. per Employee $257,377 01/05/14 'Frozen' Tops Weekend Box Offi...^[4] 01/05/14 'Frozen' Returns to the Top Sl...^[5] 12/29/13 'Hobbit' Leads Strong Post-Chr...^[6] More quote details and news »^[7] was an unusual No.1. It is in its sixth week of wide release, and movies rarely reclaim the top spot after a month or more of play.

But positive word-of-mouth and a dearth of other family-friendly options have contributed to recent surges of ticket sales for the film, which collected $20.7 million over the weekend. The movie grossed $297.8 million domestically, and its global total of $640 million ranked it second only to "The Lion King" among Disney Animation releases.

The weekend's only new wide release, "Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones," opened in second place, taking in an estimated $18.2 million in the U.S. and Canada. The weekend grosses of most holiday-season holdovers, –including "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug," "The Wolf of Wall Street" and "American Hustle," didn't fall by much in the new year.

Made for about $5 million, "The Marked Ones" is the first spinoff in the microbudgeted "Paranormal Activity" series, a franchise that started out as a surprise blockbuster in 2009 and has inspired a subgenre of cheaply made scary movies that have made consistent profits for Hollywood.

Viacom ^[8] Inc. VIAB -0.40% ^[9] Viacom Inc. Cl B ^[10] U.S.: Nasdaq ^$86.60 -0.35 -0.40% Jan. 3, 2014 4:00 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 1.55M AFTER HOURS ^$86.43 -0.17 -0.20% Jan. 3, 2014 4:45 pm Volume (Delayed 15m): 4,568 P/E Ratio 17.46 Market Cap $38.65 Billion Dividend Yield 1.39% Rev. per Employee $1,379,400 01/05/14 'Frozen' Tops Weekend Box Offi...^[11] 12/29/13 'Hobbit' Leads Strong Post-Chr...^[12] 12/26/13 Many Movies Splinter a Strong ...^[13] More quote details and news »^[14] 's Paramount Pictures hoped the spinoff would appeal to Latino moviegoers, who have become the most reliable fans of horror films. The movie takes place in a California barrio, a change from the sleepy suburban setting of the original "Paranormal Activity" films, and Latino actors head the cast.

Paramount said about 16% of the movie's business came from Southwestern markets, compared with the roughly 14% of opening gross generated in the region by "The Devil Inside," a horror film the studio released over the comparable weekend in 2012.

It was a different story in the Northeast, where attendance dropped as much as 30% when temperatures fell on Friday night, said Megan Colligan, Paramount's president of domestic marketing and distribution. "It probably kept us from having a 2 in front of our number," she said.

The $18.2 million opening of "The Marked Ones" was the lowest so far in the "Paranormal" franchise, and about 37% less than the $29 million collected in October 2012 by "Paranormal Activity 4." Paramount will distribute "Paranormal Activity 5" in October, and though sequels to "The Marked Ones" haven't been announced, the studio hopes it can become a series in its own right.

With only one new wide release, Hollywood kept a close eye on the many late-December releases lingering in theaters. "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug," director Peter Jackson's latest portrayal of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth, held strong in third place, fetching $16.3 million in its fourth week of release, which brought its total to $229.6 million. "The Wolf of Wall Street" and "American Hustle," both expected to be among the Academy Awards nominees announced on Jan. 16, rounded out the weekend's top five.

"Wolf," director Martin Scorsese's epic of Wall Street debauchery, grossed $13.4 million, down 27% from the previous week for a cumulative $63.3 million. Paramount is distributing the film, which was financed by Red Granite Pictures, for about $100 million.

"American Hustle," starring Amy Adams and Christian Bale as 1970s con artists, grossed $13.2 million for a total of $88.7 million. Sony ^[15] Corp.'s 6758.TO +2.30% ^[16] Sony Corp.^[17] Japan: Tokyo ^¥1826 +41 +2.30% Dec. 30, 2013 3:00 pm Volume : 10.85M P/E Ratio 27.38 Market Cap ¥1896.57 Billion Dividend Yield 1.37% Rev. per Employee ¥49,003,500 01/05/14 'Frozen' Tops Weekend Box Offi...^[18] 01/02/14 Inexpensive Ultra High-Definit...^[19] 12/25/13 Sony, Panasonic Call Off OLED ...^[20] More quote details and news »^[21] Sony Pictures Entertainment is distributing the movie.