Hobbit still victorious in global box office battle

Orland Bloom as Legolas in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. (Warner Bros)

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is on track to be the second biggest film released in 2014.

It is still at the top of the North American box office after three weekends, taking in US$21.9 million over the latest, while its international gross has now passed US$722 million.

While the ticket sales momentum of Peter Jackson's third Hobbit film is slowing, it is still to open in China - it releases there on January 23 - where franchise predecessor The Desolation of Smaug made an estimated $US80 million.

It's looking likely that Five Armies will surpass 2014's second biggest film, Guardians of the Galaxy which had a US$773 international box office haul.

But it's got a long way to go to top 2014 box office champ, Transformers: Age of Extinction, which earned US$1.08 billion internationally - more than US$300 million of which came from China.

In North America, Five Armies has so far out-performed Smaug - its three weekends to reach US$221 million faring better than Smaug's US$190 million in the equivalent period.

Five Armies' box office performance has so far defied predictions of industry pundits saying it would be a commercial under-performer.

It comes just as Hollywood is facing the news that its 2014 domestic box office was down 5.2 percent from the previous year and that the total number of cinema tickets sold in North America was the lowest since 1995.