Box office surprise: Guess what movie was number one?

As a general rule, I'm not usually surprised by the box office results. That's happened maybe three times in 2013. This past weekend, however, marks the fourth time I was genuinely shocked. Why? Because in the battle of Bilbo vs. Burgundy, Bilbo was not only victorious, he absolutely smoked Burgundy.

That's right: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug was once again the number one movie in the country last weekend, easily beating Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues. And when I say "easily," I mean the latest Hobbit movie absolutely crushed the Anchorman sequel, at least by Hollywood's standards. Smaug wound up in first place, taking in an estimated $31.4 million in its second weekend of release. Anchorman 2 did well, taking in $26.8 million from Friday to Sunday - good enough for a strong second place.

Last week, I predicted that Anchorman 2 would win by a mile. I was so very wrong. What happened? Gary Susman over at Moviefone has some theories, and they make sense. His strongest point: Anchorman 2 did really well over a five day release, but when Paramount opted to get the film in theaters on a Wednesday, that huge crush of mega-fans didn't get counted as part of the weekend's numbers. No worries, I suspect Anchorman 2 will continue to do really well over the holidays, despite serious competition from films like The Wolf of Wall Street and 47 Ronin (both out on Christmas Day).

As far as the rest of the top five goes, there are no more surprises: Disney's Frozen and the latest David O. Russell drama, American Hustle, essentially tied for third place (both films took in about $19.1 million), and Saving Mr. Banks came in fifth place, taking in $9.3 million. American Hustle did really, really well.

Did you make it to the theater over the weekend to see anything? If so, let's hear about it!

Photo courtesy of IFC.com