Box Office: 'Hobbit' sneaks by 'Les Miserables' to win Thursday

Ian McKellen as Gandolf in "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey."

Credit: Warner Bros.

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It appears you can't keep a good hobbit down.  "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" displayed impressive resiliency returning to the top of the box office Thursday grossing another $10.1 million for $189.7 million over its first 14 days. Granted, Peter Jackson's epic is in a massive 4,100 theaters and has higher ticket prices thanks to a majority of 3D engagements, but Warner Bros. and MGM will take the steady sales over the holiday frame.  Globally, "The Hobbit" is at $562.7 million with hopes of cracking $700 million by end of day Sunday.

"Les Miserables" pulled in another $9.1 million on Thursday for $39.4 million over its first three days. The Universal Pictures release has made $71.6 million worldwide so far. It should battle "The Hobbit" for the weekend crown.

Quentin Tarantino's "Django Unchained" dropped to third with another $8.3 million and $33.3 million to date. Numbers should also perk back up for The Weinstein Company's holiday gift beginning today.

20th Century Fox's "Parental Guidance" made $4.1 million Thursday dropping only 4% from Wednesday's gross. That puts it at $14.7 million over its first three days which is slightly more impressive than it first seems. As noted previously, Fox will easily get into the black on this $30 million budgeted PG comedy.

"Jack Reacher" claimed the fifth spot as it took in another $3.5 million.  Tom Cruise's latest end of year release has $30.7 million in its first week of release.

Look for continuing box office updates over the holiday frame on HitFix.

Gregory Ellwood
Editor-in-Chief, Co-Founder

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With over a decade of experience in the movie industry, Ellwood survived working for two major studios and has written for Variety, MSN and the LA Times. A co-founder of HitFix, Ellwood spends his time relaxing hitting 3’s on the basketball court and following his beloved Clippers.