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Prequel outperforms Fellowship of the Ring and Two Towers worldwide.
Say what you will about Peter Jackson's first installment of The Hobbit, but there's no denying that the Lord of the Rings director's latest trip to Middle-earth has been a box office knockout. That was made even clearer this week when The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey surpassed two of its predecessors: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
Since its debut on December 14, The Hobbit has earned $939,859,000 worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo, with foreign figures (69%) putting it over the top. Domestically, however, the prequel film is up to $293.2 million, which is still short of all three The Lord of the Rings movies.
As for Return of the King, that film still holds the franchise's crown for highest worldwide gross at $1.19 billion. (It also won the Oscar for Best Picture in 2003.)
Jackson's next film in the series, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, opens December 13, 2013.
