Will The Hobbit rule them all?

A new trailer has been released for Peter Jackson's 'The Hobbit'

WHILE Australia is taking on Sri Lanka at the MCG today, it'll be The Hobbit versus Les Mis at the box office.

Boxing Day is the biggest day of the year in Australian cinemas and also one of the most varied, offering movies for all tastes.

Chief executive of Village Cinemas Kirk Edwards believes the chain is "on course for its biggest ever Christmas period".

"The magic of the movies is still alive," he said. "There has been unprecedented demand for tickets to see The Hobbit, Les Mis and all the other major blockbusters."

Last year, Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson's The Adventures of Tintin drew the biggest Boxing Day crowds; this year Jackson may come out on top again with his return to Lord of the Rings territory in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

The musical epic Les Miserables, starring Anne Hathaway, is set to be a box-office smash.

The 169-minute 3D epic has already topped box office charts in New Zealand, the US and across Europe.

Its biggest competition will come from the movie version of stage musical Les Miserables. The built-in audience for the film will have been boosted by the appearance of Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe at the red carpet premiere held in Sydney last week.

Filling the crowd-pleasing family comedy slot that has on recent Boxing Days been dominated by Ben Stiller's Fockers franchise is Parental Guidance. Starring old-schoolers Billy Crystal and Bette Midler, it offers enough inter-generational chaos to please everyone from grandma down.

Disney's feel-good 3D animation Wreck-it Ralph - about a video game character who jumps into different games - may be targeted at kids, but with plenty of 1980s video arcade references (and guest stars such as Pacman and Sonic the Hedgehog), it has plenty for grown-ups to dig, too.

Billy Crystal, Kyle Harrison Breitkopf and Joshua Rush in Parental Guidance. Picture: Fox Australia Film

For the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel set there is Quartet, Dustin Hoffman's directing debut about a retirement home for British opera singers, starring Maggie Smith and Billy Connolly.

Those in a "bah humbug" frame of mind should head to the arthouse for British black comedy Sightseers, about a caravanning couple visiting dinky museums and killing litterbugs.