Total Box Office: $2.932 billion Unlike Peter Jacksons uber-successful Lord of the Rings films, The Hobbit trilogy received quite the battering from critics and viewers alike calling out its overreliance on CGI and straying too far from J.R.R. Tolkiens source material, though considering Jackson stretched out Tolkiens original 300 pages to a total of eight hours its not surprising. Perhaps it was doomed from the start: not only were comparisons with the beloved Lord of the Rings trilogy always inevitable, The Hobbit had the curse of the prequels (hello, Star Wars!) to contend with too. Maybe its down to Guillermo del Toro leaving the film and Jackson taking over as director last minute hes said himself in a behind-the-scenes featurette that he felt he was winging it during filming. Excuses aside, it nevertheless ended up a long-winded, CGI ridden sprawl of a trilogy and perhaps Jackson and co shouldve stuck to their original plan of making The Hobbit a two-parter.
