When it was announced that 'The Hobbit' would be turned from two films into three, it seemed possible that Warner Brothers and Peter Jackson could kill themselves trying to deliver an additional three hour movie only seven months after the release of the second. So it's not a big surprise that 'The Hobbit: There and Back Again'  has been pushed from July 18 to December 13, 2014.

The good thing about this is that it helps these new films mimic the release pattern of 'The Lord of the Rings' all the more, as those films were dished out every twelve months. That said, the acclaim and excitement the original trilogy brought seems to be lacking somewhat from these new movies. In comparison, 'The Fellowship of the Ring' was nominated for thirteen academy awards and won four, while 'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey' was nominated for three and went home empty handed.

Of course numbers-wise, 'Unexpected Journey' did over $300 million domestic, and nearly a billion worldwide. And even though that makes it the lowest grossing of the franchise (at least domestically) those are still healthy numbers. This delay probably has more to do with the workload of creating and making digital effects for 48 frames per second. The second film 'The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug' will be released - as was originally scheduled - on December 13 this year.

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