BOX OFFICE: THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED Dominates The UK Box Office

Unsurprisingly, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has topped the UK box office with a mighty £11,601,538 since it was released last Thursday. This is the fifth biggest opening of 2012 (behind only Skyfall, Avengers Assemble, The Dark Knight Rises and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2) in the country which has this year shown itself to be a major presence at the worldwide box office. However, this opening wasn't all that far ahead of Peter Jackson's past forays into Middle Earth as Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring opened to £11.06 million in 2001, The Two Towers made £13.06 million in 2002, and The Return of the King grossed a total of £15.02 million in 2003. Here is the UK box ooffice top 10 in full courtesy of our friends over at Digital Spy.

The adventure follows the journey of title character Bilbo Baggins, who is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the fearsome dragon Smaug. Approached out of the blue by the wizard Gandalf the Grey, Bilbo finds himself joining a company of thirteen dwarves led by the legendary warrior, Thorin Oakenshield. Their journey will take them into the Wild; through treacherous lands swarming with Goblins and Orcs, deadly Wargs and Giant Spiders, Shapeshifters and Sorcerers.

Although their goal lies to the East and the wastelands of the Lonely Mountain first they must escape the goblin tunnels, where Bilbo meets the creature that will change his life forever…Gollum.

Here, alone with Gollum, on the shores of an underground lake, the unassuming Bilbo Baggins not only discovers depths of guile and courage that surprise even him, he also gains possession of Gollum’s "precious" ring that holds unexpected and useful qualities … A simple, gold ring that is tied to the fate of all Middle-earth in ways Bilbo cannot begin to know.