Box Office, Peter Jackson | featured news

Traffic was sluggish at the multiplex on Friday as a crush of new movies -- including Tom Cruise's Jack Reacher and Judd Apatow's This Is 40 -- competed with one another for the attention of moviegoers already distracted by holiday preparations. Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey beat both new films to stay at No. 1, grossing $10.2 million for an eight-day domestic cume of $123.3 million.

Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit" led the box office with a haul of $84.8 million, a record-setting opening better than the three previous "Lord of the Rings" films. The Warner Bros. Middle Earth epic was the biggest December opening ever, surpassing Will Smith's "I Am Legend," which opened with $77.2 million in 2007, according to studio estimates Sunday. "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" also passed the December opening of "Avatar," which opened with $77 million. Internationally, "The Hobbit" also added $138.2 million, for an impressive debut well north of $200 million.

Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is living up to expectations, grossing $37.5 million to score the biggest Friday ever in the month of December. Overseas, the film's three-day gross (it began rolling out Wednesday) is $57 million, putting its world total at $94.5 million.

Sources are telling me Sony pick-up District 9 looks big, right now over $13M Friday from 3,049 theaters and the West Coast could push it higher.