'The Hobbit' Soared To #1 Online On Its First Day Of North American Ticket Sales

Going into this weekend's box office, Fandango tells me that James Bond's Skyfall scooped up 65% of all online ticket sales before opening today. Not opening for another week, Twilight Saga's Breaking Dawn Part 2 has 17%, and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey took in 15% even though it won't be released for more than a month. But Wednesday was the first day that the big online ticket-seller Fandango began selling The Hobbit and immediately Peter Jackson's long-awaited first installment raced to the top of the charts at Fandango with 33% of total sales. Warner Bros/MGM will open the first of its Hobbit trilogy in theatres on December 14th. All three films also are selling at MovieTickets which tells me that on Wednesday The Hobbit was only #3 in sales. On Thursday the results were Skyfall 58.79% (41.74% for standard screens and 17.05% for IMAX), Breaking Dawn 23%, and Hobbit with just under 5%.

Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.

Get Deadline news and alerts FREE to your inbox...