Box office: 'Hobbit' sequel stands tall

By Chris Barton

9:59 AM PST, December 14, 2013

To no one's surprise, Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" laid waste to the competition at the box office on Friday, earning an estimated $31 million.

Starring Martin Freeman ^[1] as Bilbo Baggins and Ian McKellen ^[2] as the wizard Gandalf, the 3-D "Hobbit" sequel is expected to take in around $80 million in the U.S. and Canada through Sunday according to pre-release audience surveys.

The second of a three-part prequel to Jackson's wildly successful "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, the film has earned some positive notice from critics with a 74% score on the film review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes. This is a better showing than the trilogy's first installment, "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," which earned a score of 65%.

PHOTOS: 60 images from 'The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug' ^[3]

The weekend's other debut in wide release, "Tyler Perry's A Madea Christmas," is thus far on track for a distant second place on the charts with an estimated $5.7 million in ticket sales. The film marks Perry's eighth Madea movie with the studio Lionsgate. It is expected to earn $28 million by the weekend's close.

Among the season's previous box-office champions, the Disney animated film "Frozen," earned an estimated $5.1 million on Friday to place it on track for third place, and the colossal hit "Hunger Games: Catching Fire" took home an estimated $4.1 million, which placed it very close to topping the $350-million mark in total earnings.

ALSO:

Two things Josh Brolin doesn't want to be: boring and Batman ^[4]

Golden Globe nominee Alfonso Cuaron: I'm 'incapable' of a faster pace ^[5]

Forest Whitaker's twin peaks this year: 'Fruitvale Station' and 'The Butler'^[6]

Twitter: @chrisbarton ^[7]