The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is the fifteenth film in history to reach the impressive billion dollar box office milestone after this weekend.
With it’s recent release in China – where it grossed $37.3 million U.S in 10 days – Bilbo has bagged a global total of 1 billion U.S dollars to date.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is the only other Tolkien film to reach this milestone earning a tasty $1.1 billion in 2003 (and this was without the 3D mark up). The Two Towers grossed $926 million, while Fellowship of the Ring managed $871.5 million.
With two more installments of The Hobbit still to come, if attendance figures maintain Bilbo and his band of dwarfs (‘dwarfs’ spelt as Tolkien intended!) will walk away with more money in total than Frodo and his fellowship.
With Warner Bros pushing back the release of the final film, There and Back Again, to December 2014 from it’s original release date of July 18 2014, it will be intriguing to see if interest (and box office momentum) can be maintained for an extra six months.
See what other films have reached the billion dollar benchmark below (notice how sci-fi/fantasy heavy the list is? Nerds are a great investment apparently)
1. Avatar
2. Titanic
3. The Avengers
4. Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows
5. Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon
6. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
7. Skyfall
8. The Dark Knight Rises
9. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
10. Toy Story 3
11. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
12. Star Wars Episode 1: Phantom Menace
13. Alice in Wonderland (2010, Time Burton)
14. The Dark Knight
15. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
