US release: 14th December 2012
New Zealand release: 28th November 2012
Canada release: 3rd December 2012
£52 Million $303 Million
$1 BillionThis week The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey nudges it's way past the $1 Billion world box office taking mark making it 15th film that has made it past the milestone.
This is an interesting group of films but the group is becoming less and less elite as time goes on, like the magic $100 million mark of time past.
The first film to manage the feat was Titanic back in 1998, and it held the record as the only film to have done it until 2003 when The Return of the King managed it. Since then, and with the introduction of 3D where you are charged more for your ticket, we have had 13 other films make the grade.
Of the 15, 8 had a 3D releases as well as a 2D release, 4 were released in 2012, 2 have made over $2 Billion, 1 made it over the billion mark after it's 3D re-release last year, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, and 1 was released in about 6 different formats.
The $1 Billion club is bound to grow and grow so chart watchers are now looking for the next flurry of films to make over $2 Billion, a hard task of which only 1 film has truly made it without a re-release, but that had a 3D tax, Avatar.
These figures are not adjusted for inflation in ticket prices, this is a hotly debated subject, but it is generally accepted that the highest grossing film of all time if ticket sales had always been at today's prices would be Gone With the Wind, whic would today gross $3.2 Billion at the box office, in fact the top 15 would look something more like this
Middle Earths 4 week dominance of the Box Office ends this week with Les Misérables takes over at the top knocking The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey down to fourth.
Ang Lee's Life of Pi holds firm as the number 2 film and Gangster Squad is a new entry at 3.
The Tom Hooper directed film, based on the stage play musical, debuts at the top with a brilliant £8.1 million pound weekend gross. The highest debut for all involved except Anne Hathaway who scored a bigger opening weekend with last years The Dark Knight Rises.
Life of Pi continues to do well as the awards start to pile in and increases it's total gross to £21.9 million while Gangster Squad is new at 4 with an opening weekend of £2.1 million.
This time last year Spielberg was hitting number 1 with War Horse on it's debut weekend taking nearly £4 million and knocking The Iron Lady from the top.
Five years ago I Am Legend was still doing good numbers at the top with £2 million after 3 weeks while Charlie Wilson's War with Tom Hanks was the highest new film at 3.
Ten years ago The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers still dominated the Uk box office and Martin Scorsese had the top new film with Gangs of New York at 2.
Fifteen years ago The Jackal with Bruce Willis was at the top on it's debut weekend with a gross of £1.4 million. Twenty years ago Bram Stokers Dracula from Francis Ford Coppola was hitting the top spot on it's opening knocking The Bodyguard into the runner up spot.
After an almost never ending saga of setbacks and 9 years after The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, director Peter Jackson takes his vision of J. R. R. Tolkien The Hobbit to the top of the box office.
Maybe because of the slightly less than favorable reviews are the reason but The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey debuts this week with a less than expected £11,601,538, still excellent but for best opening weekends that gross places it only at 33, between Pirates of the Caribbean 4 and 2, still an excellent gross but I don't think it will have a dominance over the box office like Skyfall has.
The Hobbit was nearly the only film released this week, but Disney did release Tinker Bell and the Secret of the Wings which landed at 5 with £528,82
Falling to number 2 this week is Rise of the Guardians which grossed £1,250,469 over the weekend.
A year ago Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows took the top spot with £3,827,697 on it's debut weekend knocking Arthur Christmas into third.
Five years ago The Golden Compass was still at the top with £3,002,951 while Enchanted entered at number 2 with £2,547,975.
Ten years ago Bond was still the top film with a weekend gross of £2,220,351 taking it's total to £27,078,158 while the top film was Like Mike at 4 with £246,169.
Today looks to be a day that should be celebrated as it mark the time that casting on The Hobbit is finally complete, Billy Connolly will be taking on the role of Dain Ironfoot who is a great drawf warrior in the story. Here we are 6 months into production, the first trailer released 6 weeks ago and casting is complete!
The anticipation for The Hobbit is building up to such an extent that I for one am starting to feel like this year can't be over with quick enough, and in the mean time we have a number of great films to enjoy.
In case you haven't been keeping up The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: There And Back Again is the 2 part screen adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's book The Hobbit, a prequel to The Lord of the Ring Trilogy the Peter Jackson brought to life in 3 spectacular films starting back in 2001.
Normally with a film getting this much hype and anticipation I'd be nervous that it could never live up to the hype, but watching the rings trilogy today is still as enjoyable and judging from the trailer for The Hobbit this will absolutely great.
Roll on December 14th when we'll finally be able to judge for ourselves whether Peter Jackson still have that gift or not.
As expected the first trailer for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has gone live on iTunes. The Hobbit, in case you don't know, is the prequel to The Lord of the Rings Trilogy that director Peter Jackson brought to the big screen in the early 2000's.
The production has had a difficult time but destiny chose Peter Jackson to direct the movies which are shooting in New Zealand probably as we speak. The first of the 2 films is probably the most anticipated film of next year (sorry Batman).
Of course the good thing about Jackson returning as director is that the connection between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings couldn't be stronger and most of the cast from the original films are back, and to open up this teaser we have Ian Holm, the original Bilbo Baggins doing a voice over. The trailer certainly ticks all the boxes, we see Frodo (Elija Wood), we see Bilbo young and old (young played by Martin Freeman who looks incredible) we see Gandolf (Ian McKellen) looking the same as he did in the Rings Trilogy. We get introduced to all the gang that will be in the new film, accompanied by a song!
What astounds me the most is that besides some clear productions values what will get sorted before release this just simply looks like it could have been part of the original Trilogy, it's simply that good. To top things off we get to see briefly the Ring from the original series and Golum. Watch it, it's great, and there is only a year before we get to see the full feature. Also scroll down the page as the first poster for the film has also been released. Oh and check out the trailer here on iTunes.