Frozen has returned to the top of the North American box office in its seventh week of release, according to early estimates.

The Disney animation knocked The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug off the top spot and into third place.

It is unusual for a film to go back to number one seven weeks after its release.

The last film to do so, according to box office tracker Rentrak, was The Passion of the Christ in 2004.

Frozen took $20.7 million over the weekend.

The next biggest film on the chart was horror offering, Paranormal Activity: The Marked One, which debuted at number two with $18.2 million.

Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street, a possible Oscar contender, was at four.

Another awards hopeful, David O Russell’s crime caper American Hustle, rounded out the top five.

Frozen, which is very loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen, has now made more than $600 million worldwide.

That makes it the second-biggest Disney animation release after The Lion King.

Frozen has returned to the top of the North American box office in its seventh week of release

Kristen Bell voices the main character in Frozen, which was created by the same team behind 2010 Disney animation Tangled.

Frozen follows the relationship of Queen Elsa and her sister Princess Anna, who battles to save their kingdom when Elsa’s involuntary magical powers threaten to destroy it.

The freezing temperatures currently being experienced in some regions of North America are thought to have had some effect on box office takings.

Meanwhile, Stephen Frears’ Philomena saw its North American total gross creep up to about $20 million this weekend.

In its seventh weekend, Philomena took in $1.6 million from 607 locations. The film, starring Dame Judi Dench and Steve Coogan, has enjoyed one of the strongest showings for an arthouse film released in 2013.

North American box office Top 5:

1. Frozen – $20.7 million

2. Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones – $18.2 million

3. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – $16.3 million

4. The Wolf of Wall Street – $13.4 million

5. American Hustle – $13.2 million

Source: Hollywood.com

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