"The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug" reviewed similarly and performed nearly as well as last December's highly anticipated prequel, Yahoo! reported.

Making "Smaug's" $73.6 million weekend more impressive was its competition, most prominently Disney's $165 million-maker, "Frozen," "The Hunger Games," and the highly acclaimed, "American Hustle." The performance of J.R.R. Tolkien's "children's book," however, was probably helped by "Hustle's" limited release (it didn't even crack $1 million) and "Frozen" and "The Hunger Games" now being three to four weeks old (though both still pulled in $22 million and $13 million this week, respectively).

"Smaug" also battled the weekend storm.

"We probably lost a couple of million there," said distribution chief Dan Fellman of Warner Bros., one of three companies to produce the movie.

Only three movies -- Will Smith's "I Am Legend" ($77 million) "Avatar" ($77 million) and the first Hobbit -- have ever had better December releases, according to Yahoo.

Those numbers, of course, are domestic. With a film as internationally known as "The Hobbit" (Tolken was from England and many of the actors are English, including the ones portraying Gandalf and Bilbo Baggins), producers believe it will eventually top $1 billion as "An Unexpected Journey" did, over $700 million of which came from abroad, according to Yahoo.

"Obviously we're very pleased with this showing," said Fellman. "It's looking even stronger internationally, so we think we've got another billion-dollar movie."

In addition to solid reviews and one of the most enthusiastic fan bases associated with any movie/book, "Smaug" was spurred by premiums for 3-D showings, which comprised 49 percent of all movies watched, and Imax releases, which contributed $9 million alone to the total, according to Yahoo.

According to several sources, Legolas's appearance roused many midnight watchers into applause.