According to a new report from Variety, director Peter Jackson has spent over $500 million on The Hobbit trilogy. Well, we should actually say Warner Bros. has spent over $500 million, since it’s technically their money. Either way, that’s an incredibly large amount and it’s only going to grow bigger as Jackson isn’t finished with his films just yet.
As large of a number as that is, it’s easy to see why the studio trusts Jackson completely. His Lord of the Rings trilogy earned 30 Oscar nominations (of which it won 17) and pulled in about $3 billion worldwide. So financially, this makes sense. Already Jackson has made the studio its money back on The Hobbit, having grossed over $1 billion worldwide with the first film in the trilogy, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.
Getting into specifics, so far, Warner Bros. has dumped $561 million into The Hobbit trilogy, compared to the $281 million that they spent to produce The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The reason for the vast difference could be attributed to several things. For one, 266 days of principal photography will certainly balloon your costs, especially in this day and age. Then there’s the whole 3D/48 FPS thing that the original trilogy didn’t have, which obviously costs a lot due to the technological upgrades that are required.
As I’ve said several times before, I really enjoyed The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. It may not be up to par with what Jackson did in his Lord of the Rings trilogy, but it was still a fun ride that proved to be a welcome return to Middle Earth.
With The Desolation of Smaug (the second film in the trilogy) gearing up to hit theatres in December, anticipation is certainly high, and many are hopeful that Jackson will deliver something more on par with what we saw in his original trilogy.
What do you think of Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy so far? Are you impressed or were you underwhelmed with the first film? Let us know in the comments section below.