Possibly influenced by the freezing weather, American cinemagoers have propelled Disney’s Frozen to the top of the box office charts, 7 weeks after the animated film was released. It took $20.7m over the weekend. Frozen - a fresh twist on Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen – originally enjoyed a strong start back on Thanksgiving weekend, when it was unleashed to families across America.

FrozenFrozen is back on top

With its gross now standing at more than $640m worldwide, Frozen’s success has surpassed expectations, and it’s rare for a film to regain box office supremacy 7 weeks after its debut – the last one to do so was The Passion of the Christ in 2004.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug was knocked off the summit and down to third, with Paranomal Activity: The Marked Ones sitting in-between in second. Peter Jackson’s second Hobbit film grabbed $16.3m while the scary spin-off/sequel managed $18.2m.

"Everyone probably suffered a little bit from the weather," said Don Harris, head of domestic distribution for Paramount, blaming the freezing temperatures on box office takings. "It looked like no matter what movie it was, it was half a million to a million dollars less on Friday and Saturday than you would have been expecting, just based on what the norms were," he explained.

Elsewhere, The Wolf of Wall Street added $13.2m to its overall gross. The comedy, directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio has broken the record for most swearwords in a film, and has been popular with cinemagoers since its Christmas day release. Others aren’t so impressed.

Another Christmas day release, this time American Hustle, sits behind Scorsese’s controversial 3-hour stock market comedy. David O Russell’s all-star crime/thriller/comedy picked up $13.2m, bringing its worldwide gross to a touch over $90m.

Figures from Box Office Mojo