Hobbit breaks opening records

Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit led the box office with an opening of $84.8m (€64.3m), a start better than the three previous Lord of the Rings films.

Studio estimates yesterday had the Warner Bros 3D epic as the biggest December opening ever, surpassing Will Smith’s I Am Legend, which opened with $77.2m in 2007.

Despite generally poor reviews, the adaptation of JRR Tolkien’s first novel in the fantasy series was an even bigger draw than the last Lord of the Rings film, The Return of the King.