Third 'Hobbit' steers clear of 'X-Men: Days of Future Past' and moves to December 2014

'There and Back Again' was originally slated for July 18, 2014

By HitFix Staff Thursday, Feb 28, 2013 9:16 PM

"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"

Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

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Bilbo Baggins won't be battling it out with the X-Men at the summer box-office.

Warner Bros. has pushed Peter Jackson threequel "The Hobbit: There and Back Again" from July 18 to December 17, 2014, thereby steering clear of Bryan Singer's highly-anticipated "First Class" follow-up "X-Men: Days of Future Past," which is also set for release on the mid-summer date. That puts Gandalf and co. smack dab in the middle of the holiday moviegoing season that has proven so lucrative for the franchise in the past.

Smart move, wouldn't you say?

"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," has grossed just shy of $1 billion worldwide, while second installment "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" is scheduled to hit theaters on December 13, 2013.

The news comes courtesy of Deadline.

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Bryant Burnette

Not much of a surprise there. It'd be stupid to open the movie anytime except shortly before Christmas, given how well that date has served the other movies.

On a completely unrelated note, how come Hitfix is so buggy lately? Maybe it's just Firefox or something, but every time I go to the site, it fails to fully load and has to be refreshed in order to actually be viewable. Normally, I suspect it's my laptop, but since this the only site I have problems with, I'm gonna say it's not my laptop.
March 1, 2013 at 4:24AM EST Reply to Comment
Felixdacat

When Peter Jackson announced the 3rd movie there were a lot of shaking heads including mine. Yeah, he said he was throwing a lot of material in from the Indices, but 3 full length features from one little book??? The one saving grace was that we would only have to wait 6 months for the finish. Now it’s a year and then another year (2015) till the extended DVD/Blueray.
Now I love and trust Mr. Jackson, but I am not happy.

March 1, 2013 at 11:02AM EST Reply to Comment
- Bunny Colvin I agree there. I still feel like 2 movies would have been plenty for the small book. I didn't care for some of the added material in the first movie. But I guess I won't complain about getting an extra movie done by Peter Jackson ... and some awesome Hobbit Lego sets! Yes I'm a 32 year old man and no, I don't live in my parents' basement.
  March 1, 2013 at 1:13PM EST
- ceggertsen I agree on the ridiculousness of making it a trilogy...an obvious cash grab.
  March 4, 2013 at 4:40PM EST