Five Armies storms international box office

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is doing a roaring trade.

The Hobbit:The Battle of the Five Armies has grossed $US117 million worldwide in its opening weekend, breaking local box office records across the world ahead of its opening in the United States.

Sir Peter Jackson's final foray into Middle-earth opened in 38 countries, outperforming the previous Hobbit movies on box office take and admissions so far in almost all of those markets.

The film's biggest openings included including Germany (US$19.5 million, the biggest opening of the year there) the United Kingdom (US$15.2 million a match to Return of the King) and France (US$14.5 million, biggest opening of the year).

Fans also flocked to the film in Russia (US$13.4 million), Brazil (US$6.9 million), and Mexico (US$6.4 million).

In New Zealand, Battle of the Five Armies has had the biggest weekend opening of the year at the New Zealand box office with its $NZ2.37 million haul also overtaking the local debut weekends for previous films in The Hobbit trilogy.

It's the sixth biggest opening for a film at the NZ box office, a league which is led by the final movie in the boy wizard franchise, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 which made $2.91 million on its opening weekend in 2011.

The Battle of the Five Armies is the second biggest opener in from Peter Jackson's two Middle-earth trilogies in New Zealand, 2003's Return of the King having opened with $NZ2.61 million in 2003.

Predictions on the film's eventual take by box office experts range from $US700 million by Box Offce Mojo which predicted the film was "poised to be the lowest-grossing, least-attended entry in the six-movie Middle-earth saga", to $US1 billion by Deadline.com.

The latter would top the $$US958 million made by The Desolation of Smaug and match the $US1.017 billion made by first Hobbit film An Unexpected Journey.

The final film opens in the United States, South Korea, Italy and Spain this week, and heads to China - where Desolation of Smaug made $US83.2 million - on January 23.