The reviews weren’t stellar, there were many complaints about the lengthy running time and 48 frames per second, and Peter Jackson also had to endure accusations of being greedy for diving the story into three segments, but there’s clearly no stopping The Hobbit.
Frankly, we did wonder if the fans would be back in big numbers when Jackson made his long awaited journey back to Middle Earth, and now the answer is a resounding yes.
First comes the news that The Hobbit is very close to hitting a billion dollars in world-wide box office, and according to Panarmenian.net, it will hit $300 million domestic by the time you read this. This report tells us that the only other Lord of the Rings flick that broke the billion barrier was Return of the King, which made over $1.1 billion ten years ago.
This means The Hobbit has beat out the first two Rings films. Foreign box office has been more important than ever for the success of a movie, and nearly 69% of The Hobbit’s massive take comes from foreign.
Now the Hobbit didn’t burn up the Academy Awards nominations like it did with Return of the King, but it should clean up at the Saturn Awards, which celebrates the best in genre movies and television. The Saturns are put on by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, and The Hobbit is up for nine Saturn awards, including Best Fantasy, and Best Director for Peter Jackson.
Also up for the Saturns this year are Skyfall, Life of Pi, Fringe, which has six nominations, Dexter, which has five, Breaking Bad, Falling Skies, Revolution, and The Walking Dead. (This is the 39th edition of the Saturns.)
You may recall that the Saturns used to be televised, and it was during one fateful show that William Shatner did his infamous Rocket Man performance that’s lived on in YouTube / Family Guy infamy ever since.
So while many were disappointed in The Hobbit, there’s the hope that the series will get better with each subsequent film, like Lord of the Rings got better with each chapter until it culminated with Return of the King. And however the next installments of The Hobbit turn out, one thing is certain. The tales of Tolkien still have a huge built in audience that will be there when The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug comes out on December 13, 2013, and The Hobbit: There and Back Again hits theaters on July 18, 2014.
