The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is clearly an improvement over the4 first Hobbit movie (read Tony’s review here and Caleb’s review here). However, despite the fact that it is a better movie, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug fell short of the last movie, making 13 percent less than the first movie made. However, despite it falling off from last year’s release, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey did set the December box office record, so beating it was not an easy task, especially with the less than enthusiastic take on Unexpected Journey.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug made an estimated $73.7 million in its opening weekend, the fourth largest December opening of all time. Disney’s fantastic animated movie Frozen (see Shawn’s review here) held on for second place with another $22.2 million. Frozen is on pace for a $250 million take.
Also opening this weekend was Tyler Perry’s A Madea Christmas, which opened at a low $16 million. That was the third-lowest opening ever for a Tyler Perry movie and the lowest ever for one with Madea in the film.
Here’s the complete weekend box office breakdown:
Weekend Box Office
| Position | Title | Weekend | Total |
| 1 | The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug | $73.6M | $73.6M |
| 2 | Frozen | $22.1 | $164.3 |
| 3 | Tyler Perry’s A Madea Christmas | $16.0 | $16.0 |
| 4 | The Hunger Games: Catching Fire | $13.1 | $356.9 |
| 5 | Thor: The Dark World | $2.7 | $198.1 |
| 6 | Out of the Furnace | $2.3 | $9.4 |
| 7 | Delivery Man | $1.8 | $27.9 |
| 8 | Philomena | $1.7 | $11.0 |
| 9 | The Book Thief | $1.6 | $14.8 |
| 10 | Homefront | $1.6 | $18.4 |
Next weekend sees the release of Anchorman: The Legend Continues and Walking with Dinosaurs.
Weekend box office estimates courtesy of Box Office Mojo