I’m not much into box office chest beating, but IB Times has done some interesting number crunching on The Hobbit versus The Lord of the Rings.
Turns out that if The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies hits $942 million US, the total take for the Hobbit films will top that of Peter Jackson’s three The Lord of the Rings films.
That might seem a lot, but maybe it’s not in a series where the US box office take is becoming less important overall.
For The Fellowship of the Rings, the US take was around 36% of overall box office; by the time of The Desolation of Smaug that had declined to 27% (for AUJ it was a touch under 30%). A continuance of this trend could see the non-US take rise over 75%. And at that point, The Hobbit: the Battle of the Five Armies could take “only” $235.5 at the box office and the film would still hit that $942 million mark.
That would mean it would have to place in the top 6 sellers for the year in the USA above X-Men.
Interesting.
“The Hobbit” trilogy is about to come to an end. “The Battle of the Five Armies” will premiere on Dec. 17 and mark the last entry into Peter Jackson’s second J.R.R. Tolkien adaptation trilogy after “The Lord of the Rings.” “ The Lord of the Rings” netted nearly $3 billion at the box office, making it one of the most successful trilogies and franchises in movie history, but can “The Hobbit” do even better?
The original “Lord of the Rings” trilogy earned $2.92 billion at the box office, according to Box Office Mojo, with the Best Picture-winning “Return of the King” in 2003 taking the cake at $1.12 billion alone. The first two “Hobbit” films have already earned the trilogy $1.98 billion, with 2012’s “An Unexpected Journey” pulling in $1.02 billion and 2013’s “Desolation of Smaug” netting $958 million.
In fact, “The Battle of the Five Armies” would only have to bring in a little over $942 million for the new trilogy to surpass the original, an exorbitant amount of money to be sure, but still less money than any of the “Hobbit” or “Lord of the Rings” films have made before.
