‘The Hobbit’ Passes $300 Million At The Box Office, Is It A Disappointment?
After nearly three months in theaters, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has broken the $300 million mark at the box office.
Considering the franchise The Hobbit shares the same universe with, is a $300 million domestic haul a disappointment?
For comparison, Box Office Mojo shows that The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring earned $313 million in theaters. The Two Towers earned $339 million. The finale, The Return Of The King earned $377 million.
The Hobbit made just over one million over the four day holiday weekend to break $300 million, and likely isn’t going to earn much more.
The Return Of The King was released in 2003, 10 years ago. The Hobbit seems to have retained a large portion of the original trilogy’s audience, so the answer would appear to be yes.
But what happens when ticket price inflation is taken into account? The numbers may surprise you. Adjusting the original trilogy’s domestic box office, here are what the movies earned:
1) The Fellowship Of The Ring – $438 million
2) The Two Towers – $461 million
3) The Return Of The King – $495 million
The Hobbit’s box office stays at $300 million. If The Return Of The King’s box office is rounded up to an even $500 million, the numbers show The Hobbit only managed to retain 60 percent of the franchises audience.
Is the theatrical performance of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey a disappointment in this new light? In truth, only the performance of The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug this December will tell. If it follows the path of the original trilogy and outperforms the $300 million performance of An Unexpected Journey, the answer is no. If it makes less money, the answer is yes.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey hits DVD and Blu-Ray in March. Will you be buying it to add to your Lord Of The Rings collection?
