THE HOBBIT Pushes On At Box Office - Sees Mountain Of Gold Coming...

First Look At Bilbo In THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG

Peter Jackson's THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY is doing very well at the box office thank you very much. After a solid week earning $113,152,900, Bilbo and company settled down to a cool $10.2 million yesterday solidly smacking the competition, namely the Goblin King, Jack Reacher and This is 40 - not necessarily in that order.

Here's the domestic breakdown:
1. THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY  $10.2m
2. JACK REACHER  $5.1m
3. THIS IS 40  $3.7m
4. RISE OF THE GUARDIANS  $1.6m
5. THE GUILT TRIP  $1.5m

So how is THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY doing verses THE LORD OF THE RINGS franchise domestically? Very well again! It was the top of the family for Days 1 and 2 then slipped to second for Day 3. It was bringing up the rear for Days 4 to 7 and was third on day 8. Of course it's not a great comparison due to which days of the week were holidays and which were not, but at least we know THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY is in the same ballpark as LOTR movies so that means that parity or beyond is certainly achieveable for the first outing of dwarves.

Worldwide is amazing too. THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY has $123m from domestic coffers but also $138m from international tallies for a total of $261m already. Yes. $1 billion is reasonable and certainly $900m is achievable. JOURNEY also puts the follow up movies in a very good place and as the action picks up so should the business side of it's show business.

I'll have more numbers when they fall into place. Stay tuned!

Stats Source: Box Office Mojo