Peter Jackson's The Hobbit has exceeded the milestone of $500 million in worldwide earnings since its December 12 release, announced the film's production companies this week. In just two weeks, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Voyage has earned $523.7M, with $179.7M from the US and $344M from international markets. The epic Middle-earth fantasy sold a record number of tickets in Australia on its release day there.

The journey of the Hobbit doesn't end there, but it will be a difficult one if the film is to see the same results as Peter Jackson's previous Tolkien trilogy, The Lord of the Rings. That series's first installment, The Fellowship of the Ring, brought in $870M, less than The Two Towers ($924M) and The Return of the King. The final episode generated more than $1.1 billion, for the sixth-best worldwide box office performance of all time.