'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,' with Andy Serkis voicing Gollum, held onto its No. 1 position at the box office this weekend.(Photo: Warner Bros. via AP)
It takes more than a vigilante to unseat a Hobbit.
Despite featuring Tom Cruise and being based on a popular line of action novels, Jack Reacher could muster no better than second place this weekend, falling to The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.
Hobbit took
the top spot for the second straight weekend with $36.7 million,
according to studio estimates from box office tracking firm
Hollywood.com.
Hobbit has raked in $148.9 million in 10 days and will be a solid performer for distributor Warner Bros.
Reacher, too, could find the holidays lucrative. The film did $15.6 million, the upper end of most analysts' expectations.
The
action film scored a thumbs-up from 62% of critics, according to survey
site Rottentomatoes.com. More importantly: 75% of moviegoers liked it, a
critical score if it hopes to perform well through the holidays.
Reacher wasn't the only new film to fall to Hobbit's powers. Judd Apatow's comedy This Is 40 did solid-if-unspectacular business, taking third place with $12 million.
The cartoon Rise of the Guardians was fourth with $5.9 million, followed by Steven Spielberg's Lincoln with $5.6 million.
The only other major newcomer, Barbra Streisand's The Guilt Trip, took sixth place with $5.4 million, meeting most of its modest expectations.
Final figures are due Monday.
Revenues remain up 6% over last year, while attendance is up 5% over 2011, Hollywood.com says.
USA Today