The Hobbit Breaks Boxing Day Record In Australia

Last week, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey became the highest grossing Boxing Day release in Australia's history.

The Peter Jackson-directed blockbuster raked in $5.9 million on its Boxing Day opening, breaking the holiday record held since 2003 by another Jackson epic Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King.

Jackson had copped quite a bit of criticism in the lead-up to his new film's release, having shot the film 48 frames per second - the standard rate being 24 frames per second. In an interview with theMusic.com.au, Jackson defended the technique, describing it as giving The Hobbit an "immersive" quality for the viewer.

Jackson may now feel vindicated for utilising the technique as The Hobbit  has now grossed over $200 million at the US box office. Jackson told us:  "We have to keep raising the bar. We can't just say that we got the technology of cinema perfect in 1927, which is when 24fps was set as the standard film speed.

"The music we listen to today isn't a needle scratching on vinyl any more — it has the clarity and purity of digital. Things move on. Change is always a bit scary, and it does take a while to get used to it."

But mostly Jackson is seeking a way to save the cinema experience, "This is what's important to me - how do we get young kids to come back to the cinema again?"

For the time being he seems to have supplied the answer. Nearly one million people went to the cinema in Australia on Boxing Day, generating $10.8 million in ticket sales. Also opening strong on the holiday was musical Les Miserables and Disney animated movie Wreck-It-Ralph. Both films earned over a million dollars each on Boxing Day.

Read the Film Carew verdict on The Hobbit and Les Miserables here.