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Forget ski vacations or winter weekends in the tropics. Movie goers were all about taking a trip this weekend to Middle Earth.

The Hobbit – a prequel to The Lord of the Rings, and the first in a brand new trilogy from director Peter Jackson – took in $84.8 million in its first three days of release.

That made it number-one at the box office by a very wide margin and set a December record in the process, blowing by the $77.2 million made on opening weekend by I Am Legend in 2007.

Promo Photo For National Lampoon's Vacation Reboot

Can The Hobbit equal the grosses of its J.R.R. Tolkien predecessors, each of whom took home over $300 million domestically?

We shall see. For now, scroll down and check out the weekend’s top five:

 
  1. The Hobbit: $84.8 million
  2. Rise of the Guardians: $7.4 million
  3. Lincoln: $7.2 million
  4. Skyfall: $7.0 million
  5. Life of Pi: $5.4 million