After an almost never ending saga of setbacks and 9 years after The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, director Peter Jackson takes his vision of J. R. R. Tolkien The Hobbit to the top of the box office.

Maybe because of the slightly less than favorable reviews are the reason but The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey debuts this week with a less than expected £11,601,538, still excellent but for best opening weekends that gross places it only at 33, between Pirates of the Caribbean 4 and 2, still an excellent gross but I don't think it will have a dominance over the box office like Skyfall has.

The Hobbit was nearly the only film released this week, but Disney did release Tinker Bell and the Secret of the Wings which landed at 5 with £528,82

Falling to number 2 this week is Rise of the Guardians which grossed £1,250,469 over the weekend.

A year ago Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows took the top spot with £3,827,697 on it's debut weekend knocking Arthur Christmas into third.

Five years ago The Golden Compass was still at the top with £3,002,951 while Enchanted entered at number 2 with £2,547,975.

Ten years ago Bond was still the top film with a weekend gross of £2,220,351 taking it's total to £27,078,158 while the top film was Like Mike at 4 with £246,169.