10 Movie Franchises Ruined By One Dumb Decision

7. Splitting The Book Into Three Movies - The Hobbit

The irony of Peter Jackson's The Hobbit trilogy is that it never really should've been a franchise at all.

The 310-page fantasy novel, the shortest of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth books, could so easily have been adapted into a single film, per the logical "one book, one film" format of the original Lord of the Rings trilogy.

And while Jackson's initial plan to split the book into "only" two films would've been a semi-acceptable compromise, his and Warner Bros.' ultimate decision to adapt the svelte book into a three-film, near-eight-hour epic proved massively detrimental to the end product.

For starters, Jackson started shooting the films without a clear road map for how the story would be divided between them, and the majority of the lengthy shoot was reportedly a mad rush to capture as much footage as possible to be pieced together in editing.

Post-production itself didn't fare much better, though, with Weta Digital working around the clock to produce ultimately sub-par visual effects due to the hurried turnaround times for a Christmas release.

But the basic problem is that this needlessly epic approach encouraged Jackson to bloat the story out with unnecessary guff in an attempt to "justify" the trilogy.

The cringe-worthy love triangle subplot involving Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly), Legolas (Orlando Bloom), and Kili (Aidan Turner) is surely the most egregious addition.

Granted, The Hobbit trilogy ended up grossing $2.93 billion from a fanbase that couldn't help itself but be exploited, but in terms of storytelling integrity, Jackson and Warner Bros. totally sold themselves and audiences out.