Celebrity director Quentin Tarantino's new film, Django Unchained, made a splashy debut -- but only strong enough to take the No. 2 position at the box office this past weekend. The movie, which is distributed by the privately held Weinstein Company, brought in slightly less than $31 million in its freshman weekend, according to data compiled by Box Office Mojo.
Defeating Django to take No. 1 was the durable fantasy adaptation The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Now the leader for the third week in a row, the epic film sold nearly $33 million worth of tickets, said Box Office Mojo. It has now grossed more than $222 million domestically and $464 million abroad. It is distributed by Time Warner (TWX) unit Warner Bros.
Taking third place this past weekend was another adaptation, the musical version of the classic drama Les Miserables. The movie made $28 million to cap 2012 pleasantly for distributor Universal, a subsidiary of General Electric (GE -0.80%) and Comcast's (CMCSA -1.31%) NBC Universal.
