'The Hobbit: Desolation Of Smaug' Is On Fire At Box Office Opening Weekend Debuting $73.7 Million Domestically

'The Hobbit: Desolation Of Smaug' as predicted dominates the North American box office on opening weekend with garnering an impressive $73.7 million from ticket sales. The epic sequel melted Disney's latest animation, 'Frozen', off the top spot as it earned $22.2 in its third weekend, bringing its overall domestic ticket total to $164.4 million.

'Smaug' received the fourth biggest December opening ever, coming behind 'Avatar' ($77 million), 'I Am Legend' ($77.2 million) and 'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey' ($84.6 million).

As The Hollywood Reporter notes, the new instalment is down 13% from the first film in 'The Hobbit' trilogy but that is likely due to stronger competition at the box office with 'Frozen' and 'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire' still remaining cinemagoers favourites.

Plus a major storm on the east coast of American will have played a part in cinemas being less busy than usual.

Watch 'The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug' trailer here

The sequel depicts 'Bilbo Baggins' (Martin Freeman) travelling with a group of dwarfs as their 'burglar' to aid them in entering the lonely mountain, where the dwarfs will face off against 'dragon Smaug' (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch).

Joining the current cast is Evangeline Lilly, Orlando Bloom who reprises his role as 'Legolas' from 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy, Lee Pace and Luke Evans.

See next page for the rest of this weekends box office results

Other film box office estimates, which didn't stand a chance against 'Smaug', estimate in 3rd place is 'Tyler Perry's A Madea Christmas' which opened to an estimated $16 million, while 'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire' earned $13.2 million for the fourth position. So far 'Catching Fire' has grossed $739.9 million, overtaking the worldwide box office total for 'The Hunger Games,' which earned $691 million.

Rounding off the top five is another sequel, 'Thor: The Dark World', which earned $2.7 million and has now come to a worldwide total of $619.9 million.

Here is the list of the top ten films at this weekend's box office by Box Office Mojo:

1. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug: $73.7 million

2. Frozen: $22.2 million

3. Tyler Perry's A Madea Christmas: $16 million

4. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: $13.2 million

5. Thor: The Dark World: $2.7 million

6. Out of the Furnace: $2.3 million

7. Delivery Man: $1.9 million

8. Philomena: $1.76 million

9. The Book Thief: $1.67 million

10. Homefront: $1.64 million