Box Office: 'The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug' Demolishes the Competition
Credit: New Line Cinema
Peter Jackson has another hit on his hands. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug demolished the competition at the box office this weekend, taking in $73.7 million in its debut to take the No. 1 spot.
The film scored the fourth-biggest December opening ever, behind the first installment in The Hobbit franchise, 2012's An Unexpected Journey ($84.6 million), the Will Smith blockbuster I Am Legend ($77.2 million) and James Cameron's Avatar ($77 million). The film just barely eked out Jackson's third Lord of the Rings film, The Return of the King, which raked in $72.6 million in its December 2003 debut. However, while The Desolation of Smaug is 13 percent behind the debut of An Unexpected Journey, the second Hobbit film faced much stiffer competition at the box office from blockbusters like The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Disney's Frozen, in addition to several high-profile new arrivals
Chief among those new arrivals was this week's No. 3, Tyler Perry's A Madea Christmas, which brought in $16.2 million, a bit lower than previous Madea comedies, but respectable nonetheless. However, it wasn't enough to claim the No. 2 spot from Frozen, which brought in $22.2 million in its third weekend at the box office.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire took the No. 4 spot with $13.2 million, bringing its North American total to $357 million. Internationally, the film grossed $19.5 million from 83 markets, bringing the worldwide gross to $739.9 million, surpassing the worldwide box office gross for the first film, The Hunger Games, which finished its run with $691 million.
Thor: The Dark World continues its healthy run, coming in at No. 5 in its sixth week. Although the movie grossed a meager $2.7 million this weekend, the North American total has climbed to $198.1 million and its worldwide gross has reached $619.9 million.
You can check out the full top 10 below:
1. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug ($73.7 million)
2. Frozen ($22.2 million)
3. Tyler Perry's A Madea Christmas ($16.2 million)
4. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire ($13.2 million)
5. Thor: The Dark World ($2.7 million)
6. Out of the Furnace ($2.3 million)
7. Delivery Man ($1.9 million)
8. Philomena ($1.2 million)
9. The Book Thief ($1.7 million)
10. Homefront ($1.6 million)
Via: The Hollywood Reporter / Box Office Mojo