Forget Five Armies. The final instalment in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy has defeated every other movie at the Aussie box office to retain its throne for a second weekend in a row.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies took $6.3 million over the weekend to put it in first place, according to the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia, bring its total since Boxing Day to $24 million.

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In second place was the Benedict Cumberbatch drama The Imitation Game, with $4.2 million, while new animated spin-off flick Penguins of Madagascar debuted in third.

Another animated flick – Disney’s Big Hero 6 – fell two rungs to hover in fourth, while Russell Crowe’s directorial debut The Water Diviner slipped one place to fifth.

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, starring Ben Stiller, Aussie Rebel Wilson and the late Robin Williams, lost three places, but hung onto sixth.

Meanwhile fellow family flicks Paddington and Annie fell two spots apiece, to take seventh and eighth, as new Bill Murray film St Vincent drifted one place lower to ninth.

And rounding out the ladder was The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, down three places from last weekend, but still hanging in there in 10th.

THE TOP 10 FILMS FOR THE WEEKEND OF JANUARY 1-4
1. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – $6.3 million (Warner Bros)
2. The Imitation Game – $4.2 million (Roadshow)
3. Penguins of Madagascar – $3.6 million (Fox/Dreamworks)
4. Big Hero 6 – $3.2 million (Walt Disney)
5. The Water Diviner – $2.7 million (eOne/Universal)
6. Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb – $2.5 million (Fox)
7. Paddington – $788,221 (StudioCanal)
8. Annie – $666,714 (Roadshow)
9. St Vincent – $654,093 (Roadshow)
10. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 – $563,843 (Roadshow)