12 Things You Didn't Know About December's Biggest Movies

12. The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies Is The Shortest Of The Middle Earth Movies

Prior to Peter Jackson's final entry into his towering, 6-film Middle Earth series screening for critics, it was widely assumed that The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies would likely be one of the longest movies in the franchise, perhaps not clocking in at Return of the King's 201 minutes, but probably not being too far off, either. What a relief it is, then, that after critics and audiences complained that the first two Hobbit movies were needlessly bloated, Five Armies is in fact a whole lot more concise, running in at a reasonable 144 minutes (and without credits, around 135), making it the shortest film in the series by quite a margin. For comparison's sake, the running times of the other films in descending order are: 201 minutes (Return of the King), 179 minutes (The Two Towers), 178 minutes (The Fellowship of the Ring), 169 minutes (An Unexpected Journey), and 161 minutes (The Desolation of Smaug). The Battle of the Five Armies is almost 20 minutes shorter than the next-shortest movie, and considering that it reportedly features a 45-minute final battle, hopefully it will be an epic finale that's mostly payoff rather than indulgent and glacially paced.