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The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug has knocked Frozen off the top spot at the US box office.



The Peter Jackson-directed sequel to last year's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, based on the book by JRR Tolkien, debuted at number one this weekend with $73.6m.

While Frozen continued strongly this week with $22.1m at number two, Tyler Perry's A Madea Christmas premiered in third place with $16m.

The top five was rounded out by Jennifer Lawrence's The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Thor: The Dark World.

The US weekend box office top ten in full:
1. (-) The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - $73,675,000
2. (1) Frozen - $22,184,000
3. (-) Tyler Perry's A Madea Christmas - $16,000,000
4. (2) The Hunger Games: Catching Fire - $13,150,000
5. (4) Thor: The Dark World - $2,700,000
6. (3) Out of the Furnace - $2,320,000
7. (5) Delivery Man - $1,872,000
8. (9) Philomena - $1,756,000
9. (7) The Book Thief - $1,675,000
10. (6) Homefront- $1,637,000