More than a decade has passed since Peter Jackson and company first ventured to Middle Earth with "The Lord of the Rings:
The Fellowship of the Ring." At this point, audiences pretty much know what to expect from "The Hobbit: An Unexpected
Journey," despite the title's insistence to the contrary. That's hardly a knock on Jackson's fourth installment in the
franchise, a prequel that takes place 60 years before the earlier movies' events but basically resurrects the same world
of limber and furry-footed humanoids, fire-breathing dragons and deadly Orcs. Plot comes secondary to the care involved
in bringing Middle Earth back to life. While Jackson hasn't delivered a hit on par with his "Lord of the Rings" movies,
"The Hobbit" proves he can still do justice to the tricky blend of fantasy and action that made the earlier entries such
enjoyable works of popular entertainment.
It took more than a decade, two directors and a lawsuit before "The Hobbit" made it to the big screen. Hollywood
executives are crossing their fingers that the culmination of that journey will help smash movie box office records this
year.The film, which opens on December 14, is expected to contribute to the first annual box office increase in North
America in three years, a sign that big movie studios have made more films enticing enough to get people into theaters
and away from their TVs, games and the Internet.
"The Hobbit" follows this year's other big box office successes "The Avengers", which became the industry's third-largest
film with $623 million in US sales, and "The Dark Knight Rises" and "The Hunger Games" which both passed $400 million.
Hollywood analysts predict the two months of the year that include "The Hobbit" and the finale of the "Twilight" vampire
series may lift US and Canadian ticket sales above the $10.6 billion record set in 2009.
