Originally planned for release on July 18, 2014, New Line Cinema and MGM have moved the theatrical release of The Hobbit: There and Back Again to December 17, 2014.
Directed by Peter Jackson, the film is the third and final chapter of his J.R.R. Tolkien adaptation, the first part of which, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, hit theaters late last year. The second, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, is scheduled to arrive on December 13th of this year.
The new date allows for the trilogy to maintain its consistent December releases and puts it away from Bryan Singer’s X-Men: Days of Future Past in July. December 17 has The Hobbit: There and Back Again arriving just two days before Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment’s Despicable Me spinoff, Minions, and Brad Bird’s mysterious Tomorrowland.
Here’s the full announcement:
The Hobbit: There and Back Again, the final film in Peter Jacksons trilogy adaptation of the timeless classic The Hobbit, will now be released on December 17, 2014. The joint announcement was made today by Dan Fellman, President of Domestic Distribution, and Veronika Kwan Vandenberg, President of International Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures.
The film moves from its previous summer slot, and now follows the holiday release pattern of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which went on to become a billion-dollar global blockbuster, as well as the three films in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. The second film in The Hobbit Trilogy, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, is next to be released, on December 13, 2013. All three films in the Trilogy are productions of New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures (MGM).
Stated Fellman, Were excited to complete the Trilogy the same way we started it, as a holiday treat for moviegoers everywhere.
Added Kwan Vandenberg, Our holiday release of the first film set a successful precedent for this wonderful Trilogy, and were delighted to bring it to a conclusion in the same release window.
From Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson comes The Hobbit: There and Back Again, the final film in an epic Trilogy adapting the enduringly popular masterpiece The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. The three films tell a continuous story set in Middle-earth 60 years before The Lord of the Rings, which Jackson and his filmmaking team brought to the big screen in the blockbuster trilogy that culminated with the Oscar®-winning The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
Jackson directed The Hobbit: There and Back Again from a screenplay by Fran Walsh & Philippa Boyens & Peter Jackson. Jackson is also producing the film, together with Carolynne Cunningham, Zane Weiner and Fran Walsh. The executive producers are Alan Horn, Toby Emmerich, Ken Kamins and Carolyn Blackwood, with Boyens and Eileen Moran serving as co-producers.
All three films in The Hobbit Trilogy are productions of New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures (MGM), with New Line managing production. Warner Bros. Pictures is handling worldwide theatrical distribution, with select international territories as well as all international television distribution being handled by MGM.
