"Anchorman" 2 opened as the strongest new movie, the movie gave some competition to "Hobbit" 2 The Desolation of Smaug but was unable to replace it as the top grossing film so far.

"Anchorman" 2 is estimated to have collected about $40 million at the box office with analysts expecting better collection as the days progress and also from the international market.

Comedy movies have done good business recently and analysts expect that "Anchorman" 2 will perform better than the first Will Ferrell starrer not only in the domestic market but also in the overseas market. The overseas collection for the first "Anchorman" movie was estimated to be just $5 million.

The first "Anchorman" movie had collected about $29 million in the year 2004. The new movie was expected to do better than the $40 million box office opening, but the strong pull towards "Hobbit" 2 may have dampened the collections of the movie.

"Anchorman" 2 continues the story of Ron Burgundy at the news desk, joined by co-anchor and wife, Veronica Corningstone, weather man Brick Tamland, man on the street Brian Fantana and Champ Kind covering sports.

Ron Burgundy faces the challenge of the modern 24 hours news channels. With the 70s behind him, will he be able to adapt to the modern world of news reporting in New York? The typical Will Farrell comedy has some fan following and is expected to be a crowd puller.

The cast of "Anchorman" 2 includes Will Ferrell, Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, David Koechner, Christina Applegate, Meagan Good, James Marsden, Josh Lawson, Kristen Wiig, Dylan Baker and Sacha Baron Cohen.

It must be noted that the first "Anchorman" movie was released in the month of July. A movie released in December has the advantage of the holiday season that may fill more seats in the theatres and boost the collection.

"Anchorman" 2 will have to compete with popular upcoming movies with big names like "The Wolf of Wall Street," "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," "Grudge Match," "Justin Bieber's Believe" and "47 Ronin."

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