Much of the talk about The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey back in December 2012 centered around whether or not the new trilogy was artistically necessary, whether or not it was reasonable to stretch one 300+ page children's book to three 2.5-hour movies, and Peter Jackson's controversial decision to shoot the film in 48 frames-per-second. This is as good a time to remind everyone that the Middle Earth prequel trilogy may have been an artistic disappointment, but it was an unmitigated financial grand-slam for all parties. Yet no one seems to have paid it much attention. The three-film trilogy cost around $765m to produce and made $2.916b worldwide thus far. But whether or not the film makes it over the hump, the Hobbit trilogy has been incredibly successful on a domestic and worldwide stage. But 'sadly' it sits at $939m worldwide and it may not make it to the milestone. So barring the above-noted foreign exchange issues, the third and final Peter Jackson Hobbit film would have crossed $1 billion at the worldwide box office.

As the headline of the piece states, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies will make around $90 million less worldwide than it otherwise would have thanks to a rising dollar and plunging foreign currencies. The Hollywood Reporter's Pamela McClintock and Scott Roxborough dropped a fascinating report last week concerning how the recent strengthening of the greenback has translated into lower earnings in dollar terms for the studios overseas from would-be global blockbusters.

The hobbit book trilogy