New Line and MGM’s first in the latest Middle Earth trilogy from Peter Jackson heads into the weekend having grossed an estimated $11.2m from 16 opening days on Wednesday (12).

Warner Bros Pictures International top brass reported that the film took a boisterous $4.3m from Scandinavia, which breaks down to $1.6m from Sweden, $1.2m from Norway, $1.1m from Denmark and $412,000 from Finland.

France produced the biggest result of the day on $2.4m from 958 screens for 251,000 admissions, while Germany generated $2m including previews.

The Hobbit An Unexpected Journey opens this weekend on approximately 17,000 screens in 55 territories. The adventure story arrived in Jackson’s homeland of New Zealand on approximately $643,000 for the biggest non-holiday, Wednesday debut of all time.

Paramount Pictures International opens DreamWorks Animation’s Rise Of The Guardians in Australia. The film will cross $100m this weekend and stands at $98.4m.

Fox International’s Life Of Pi has grossed $106.9m and opens this weekend in Vietnam. The film is still in the early stages of release.