Case Studies - US Blockbuster - The Hobbit: Battle of the five armies

Blockbuster - The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Release date: 17th December 2014
Budget: $250 million
Opening Weekend: $54,734,334
Gross: $255,108,370 (US)
$955million worldwide. Second highest grossing film of 2014, 26th Highest grossing film of all time.
Made approximately $3million less in the US than Desolation Of Smaug and $150million less than An Unexpected Journey. The third film of The Hobbit saga, but the 6th film of the entire 'Middle Earth' saga. Both a sequel and part of a franchise.
This made more than the first two 'Lords of the Rings' films combined. Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003) however, made $377,019,252. They were new when they were released so it took time to build an audience, hence why the last LOTR film was the most successful, but because of these films 'The Hobbit' already had an audience, which made success much more likely. The Lake Town, Erebor and Woodland realm sets along with much of the landscapes use Visual Effects to make them look more realistic.
Production Companies: New Line Cinema, MGM
Director: Peter Jackson. Famously directed 'The Lord Of The Rings' films. Fans of the franchise would have recognised his name and how well he did with the first films. Also directed 'King Kong' (2005)
Certificate: 12
Stars: Ian McKellen (X-Men), Martin Freeman (The Office, BBC Sherlock), Richard Armitage (Captain America: The First Avenger)
Sir Ian McKellen is returning in the role of Gandalf as he played him in LOTR along with Orlando Bloom in the role of Legolas Greenleaf.
Genre: Adventure fantasy
Marketing:
Trailer:

As it is the third film in the saga and is based on a book, many people knew what to expect from the final instalment from Middle Earth. The trailer has 19,020,478 views on YouTube and includes twitter hashtags and a link to a facebook page in order to allow people to share the trailer. It makes sure to clearly show the main stars of the film as well as giving a faint idea of  the plot of the final chapter for those who did not know what to expect. The non-diegetic sound gives a very tense atmosphere, again hinting at the tense and dramatic feature of the film.
A teaser trailer was released for the film on 28th July 2014 and was played in the trailers of Guardians of the Galaxy, Into the Storm and If I Stay.
Poster:

The poster shows only Bilbo, unlike the other posters. His head is hung which gives an insight into the dramatic and emotional nature of the film. We are told it is the 'defining chapter' illustrating it is an important part of the saga and will most likely be the most dramatic.
Response: Though there was a generally positive response to the film, it scored a 7.5 on IMDb making it the only one of the six Middle Earth films to fall below an 8.0
Extra details: The song that plays in the end credits of the film was written and performed by Billy Boyd who played Pippin in the LOTR films. The Hobbit series was originally planned to be in two parts but they changed it to having three. Initial filming of The Hobbit took 266 days, the exact same amount of time as The LOTR trilogy.
The DVD topped the Home release charts in the week of release.
Won the 'Truly Moving Picture' award at the Heartland film festival.