Holiday Box Office: 'Les Miserables' Tops Wednesday With $12.2 Million

Universal's Les Miserables stayed at No. 1 on Wednesday, grossing $12.2 million for a two-day North American cume of $30.3 million.

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From director Tom Hooper (The King's Speech), the film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical stars Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, Russell Crowe and Amanda Seyfried.

Les Mis -- receiving an A CinemaScore -- broke several records in its debut, scoring the second-best Christmas Day opening of all time, and the best opening day for a musical. Overseas, the movie debuted to $18.2 million over the weekend from seven markets, including in Japan, where it came in No. 1. Through Wednesday, the musical has earned $28.3 million international for a worldwide total of $58.6 million.

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Placing No. 2 at the domestic box office Wednesday was Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. The tentpole, from New Line and MGM, took in $11.4 million for a domestic total of $179.7 million. Combined with grosses earned Wednesday at the international box office, Hobbit jumped the $500 million mark globally to reach $523.7 million in ticket sales (though it's trailing the 2003 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in many countries).

Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained came in No. 3 on its second day of play in North America, earning $10 million and putting its total at $25 million. Django, from The Weinstein Co., also made the record books, scoring the top Christmas Day opening ever for an R-rated film.

Django, receiving an A- CinemaScore, stars Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Both Les Mis and Django fell off 33 percent Wednesday, while overall ticket revenue declined 23 percent, a bigger drop than usual for the day after Christmas, though this year's holiday was particularly robust for moviegoing.

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Box-office observers attribute Wednesday's dip, at least in part, to bad weather in the Southeast and Northeast. The last time Christmas fell on a Tuesday was in 2007, when revenue fell 12 percent from Tuesday to Wednesday.

Parental Guidance -- the third new film opening on Christmas Day -- took in $4.3 million Wednesday to come in No. 4. The Fox comedy, starring Billy Crystal, Bette Midler and Marisa Tomei, has earned a total of $10.6 million.

Eight nationwide releases opened between Dec. 19 and 25, an unusually high number even for the year-end holidays.

Disappointments include Paramount's Barbra Streisand-Seth Rogen comedy The Guilt Trip, which has only grossed $12.7 million since debuting Dec. 19. Disney's 3D rerelease of Pixar's Monsters, Inc. also has underwhelmed. Likewise opening Dec. 19, it has earned $10.2 million.

Andrew Adamson's 3D film Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away hasn't made much noise since opening Dec. 19 in limited runs. The film, executive produced by James Cameron and distributed by Paramount, was playing in a total of 848 theaters by Christmas Day and has grossed only $4.2 million so far.

The verdict is still out on Tom Cruise starrer Jack Reacher and Judd Apatow's R-rated comedy This Is 40, both of which opened Dec. 21.

Paramount's Jack Reacher has grossed $27.1 million to date, while Universal's This Is 40 has taken in $20.7 million.