It is the third and final installment in the three-part film adaptation based on the novel The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien, following An Unexpected Journey (2012) and The Desolation of Smaug (2013). The film also marked the final middle earth adaptation of Tolkien's work.
Produced by New Line Cinema, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and WingNut Films, and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. The Battle of the Five Armies was released on 11 December 2014 in New Zealand and on 17 December 2014 in the United States.
It stars Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Evangeline Lilly, Lee Pace, Luke Evans, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ken Stott and James Nesbitt. It also features Cate Blanchett, Ian Holm, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving and Orlando Bloom. As of January 15, 2015, it has grossed over $782 million, making it the second highest-grossing film of 2014 and the 50th highest-grossing film of all time. At the 87th Academy Awards, the film received a nomination for Best Sound Editing.
Description
- Directed by : Peter Jackson
- Produced by : Carolynne Cunningham, Zane Weiner, Fran Walsh, Peter Jackson
- Screenplay by : Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson, Guillermo del Toro
- Based on : The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
- Starring :
- Ian McKellen
- Martin Freeman
- Richard Armitage
- Evangeline Lilly
- Lee Pace
- Luke Evans
- Benedict Cumberbatch
- Ken Stott
- James Nesbitt
- Cate Blanchett
- Ian Holm
- Christopher Lee
- Hugo Weaving
- Orlando Bloom
- Music by : Howard Shore
- Cinematography : Andrew Lesnie
- Edited by : Jabez Olssen
- Production companies : New Line Cinema, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, WingNut Films
- Distributed by : Warner Bros. Pictures
- Release dates : 1 December 2014 (London premiere), 11 December 2014 (New Zealand), 17 December 2014 (United States)
- Running time : 144 minutes
- Country : New Zealand, United States
- Language : English
- Budget : $250 million
- Box office : $783.48 million
Bilbo and the Dwarves watch from Lonely Mountain as the dragon Smaug destroys Laketown. Bard manages to break out of prison and kill Smaug with the black arrow, and the dragon's falling body crushes the fleeing Master of Laketown. Bard, chosen as the new leader, and the Laketown people seek refuge in the ruins of Dale. Tauriel travels to investigate Mount Gundabad with Legolas. Upon arriving at Erebor, Fili, Kili, Bofur and Oin are informed by Bilbo that Thorin has been inflicted with Smaug's "dragon sickness" as he searched for the Arkenstone. It is revealed that Bilbo actually stole the Arkenstone from Smaug but knows it should be hidden from Thorin, who orders the entrance of Lonely Mountain be sealed off.
Meanwhile, Galadriel, Elrond and Saruman arrive at Dol Guldur and free Gandalf and engage the Nazgul while Radagast arrives and escorts Gandalf away. When Sauron confronts the group, Galadriel uses Eärendil's light to banish Sauron and the Nazgul from the fortress. Saruman tells Elrond to take the exhausted Galadriel to safety while he deals with Sauron. Gandalf leaves Radagast for Erebor to warn of the Orc army approaching the Mountain. Azog, marching on Erebor with his vast Orc army, sends Bolg to Gundabad to summon their other army. Legolas and Tauriel witness the march of Bolg's army, bolstered by Goblins and giant bats.
While Bard and the Laketown survivors shelter in Dale, Thranduil and his elf army arrives with supplies and aid, and forms an alliance with Bard, wishing to claim a necklace of white gems from the Mountain. Bard attempts to negotiate and reason with Thorin to avoid war, who refuses to cooperate, much to the company's dismay. After Gandalf arrives at Dale, Bilbo sneaks out of Erebor to hand the Arkenstone over to Thranduil and Bard. The next day, Bard and Thranduil's armies gather at the gates of Erebor, offering to trade the Arkenstone for gold. Thorin learns of Bilbo's deception and nearly kills him, before Gandalf forces Thorin to release Bilbo. Meanwhile, Thorin's cousin Dáin arrives with a Dwarf army and prepares to attack the Elves and Men before Azog's army arrive. With the Orcs outnumbering Dain's army, Thranduil's and Bard's forces, along with Gandalf and Bilbo, join the battle.
Inside Erebor, Thorin, refusing to fight, suffers an hallucination before regaining his sanity and leading his company into battle. While the other Dwarves of the company aid Dain's forces, Thorin rides towards Ravenhill with Dwalin, Fíli, and Kíli to kill Azog and force the Orc army to retreat. Meanwhile, Tauriel leaves with Legolas to warn the dwarves of Bolg's approaching army, with Bilbo following them using the One Ring, but is knocked unconscious after warning the dwarves. Azog battles Thorin after killing Fili, while Kili dies protecting Tauriel from Bolg. After Legolas kills Bolg, the Great Eagles arrive with Radagast and Beorn, and the Orc armies are quickly overcome.
Bilbo regains consciousness and finds that Azog has been killed by a fatally wounded Thorin who succumbs to his injuries and dies but makes peace with Bilbo before. On Thranduil's suggestion, Legolas leaves to meet with a young Dunedain ranger going by the name Strider. Tauriel mourns Kili, and Thranduil accepts their love. Bilbo bids farewell to the remaining dwarves and journeys home to the Shire with Gandalf. As the two part, Gandalf admits his knowledge of Bilbo's ring and cautions him against using it. Bilbo returns to Bag End to find his belongings being auctioned off because he was presumed dead. He uses the contract presented to him by Thorin's company to prove his identity. Sixty years later, Bilbo receives a visit from Gandalf and runs out to greet him.
Cast
Cast of The Hobbit film series and Casting of The Hobbit film series
- Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins
- Ian Holm as old Bilbo Baggins
- Ian McKellen as Gandalf the Grey
- Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield II
- Benedict Cumberbatch as Smaug the Magnificent and Sauron the Necromancer
- Orlando Bloom as Legolas Greenleaf
- Evangeline Lilly as Tauriel
- Luke Evans as Bard the Bowman
- Lee Pace as Thranduil
- Graham McTavish as Dwalin
- Ken Stott as Balin
- Aidan Turner as Kíli
- Dean O'Gorman as Fíli
- Mark Hadlow as Dori
- Jed Brophy as Nori
- Adam Brown as Ori
- John Callen as Óin
- Peter Hambleton as Glóin
- William Kircher as Bifur
- James Nesbitt as Bofur
- Stephen Hunter as Bombur
- Cate Blanchett as Galadriel
- Hugo Weaving as Elrond
- Christopher Lee as Saruman the White
- Sylvester McCoy as Radagast the Brown
- Manu Bennett as Azog the Defiler
- John Tui as Bolg
- Billy Connolly as Dáin
- Mikael Persbrandt as Beorn
- Stephen Fry as the Master of Laketown
- Ryan Gage as Alfrid
- John Bell as Bain
- Simon London as Feren: an Elf from the Woodland Realm.
The Hobbit was originally envisioned as a two-part film, but Jackson confirmed plans for a third film on 30 July 2012, turning his adaptation of The Hobbit into a trilogy. According to Jackson, the third film would contain the Battle of the Five Armies and make extensive use of the appendices that Tolkien wrote to expand the story of Middle-Earth (published in the back of The Return of the King). Jackson also stated that while the third film will largely make use of footage originally shot for the first and second films, it would require additional filming as well. The third film was titled There and Back Again in August 2012.
In April 2014, Jackson changed the title of the film to The Battle of the Five Armies as he thought the new title better suited the situation of the film. He stated on his Facebook page, "There and Back Again felt like the right name for the second of a two film telling of the quest to reclaim Erebor, when Bilbo's arrival there, and departure, were both contained within the second film. But with three movies, it suddenly felt misplaced—after all, Bilbo has already arrived 'there' in the Desolation of Smaug." Shaun Gunner, the chairman of The Tolkien Society, supported the decision: "The Battle of the Five Armies much better captures the focus of the film but also more accurately channels the essence of the story."
Score
As with all the previous films, Howard Shore has composed the score. Billy Boyd, who played Peregrin Took in The Lord of the Rings, wrote and recorded the song "The Last Goodbye" to be played over the end credits of the film. Callum Hofler of Entertainment Junkie gave the score an overtly positive review, stating, "Shore has had to pull out all the stops to produce something suitably satisfying, to reward fans of the series for their patience, persistence and support.
After running through the album numerous times, 'satisfying' is not the term I would assign this; 'emotionally-poignant', 'colossal' and 'monumental' are all far more accurate." Hofler concluded with, "If there was any way this franchise needed to conclude, than this is the picturesque and most desirable variation possible." He awarded the special edition of the score a 9.3 out of a possible 10. Erin Willard of SciFi Mafia was generally positive, except that she noted, "There came a point near the end of the first of the two discs where I finally just had to pull out the earbuds; the constant and increasing dissonance started to actually hurt my ears." She awarded the score a 4 out of 5 stars.
Release / Marketing
A teaser trailer for the film was released on 28 July 2014 attached to Guardians of the Galaxy, Into the Storm, and If I Stay. The second theatrical trailer was released on 6 November 2014 attached to Interstellar and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1.
To promote the film's release, Wellington-based association football club, Wellington Phoenix, wore a special designed jersey to commemorate the opening of The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies. The custom, film-themed jersey was worn only once, on 13 December 2014. In the film's Japanese release on December 13, Warner Brothers collaborated with mobile gaming company A-Lim to bring Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf and Legolas into the game Brave Frontier at the end of December as Vortex Dungeon units. The campaign only runs until February 2015.
Smaug made a guest appearance on the satire show The Colbert Report on December 12, 2014 to promote the film. Cumberbatch, who voiced the dragon in the films, also provided the voice of the Smaug for the interview with self-confessed Tolkien fan Stephen Colbert. WETA was also responsible for its animation.
Theatrical release
The world première of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies was held in London at Leicester Square on 1 December 2014. The film opened in theatres on 11 December 2014 in New Zealand, on 12 December in the United Kingdom and on 17 December in the United States. Warner Bros released the film on 18 December 2014 in Greece and 26 December in Australia. The film is scheduled to be released in China on January 23, 2015.
Reception / Box office / Box office forecast
Prior to its North American release, analysts predicted the film would be a box office success, citing effective marketing, good word-of-mouth publicity, a solid release date, and as series conclusions tend to draw more audiences. Early critics and box office trackers predicted that the film could earn $70–80 million in its opening weekend while Box Office Mojo estimated a $91–100 million five-day opening and a $235 million total domestic gross could be attainable. Once actual grosses from Tuesday midnight to Friday were known, Variety estimated an $88 million five-day opening could be achieved.
Prior to its weekend debut Scott Mendelson of Forbes noted the similarities of the daily box office performances with 2003's The Matrix Revolutions and 2006's Superman Returns, both of which earned more or less the same as The Battle of the Five Armies on a daily basis, and taking evidence from the aforementioned film's Thursday preview night gross, opening day gross and Friday earnings he concluded that a $52 million three-day and an $86 million five-day opening could be possible. Based on digital tracking done by Moviepilot, data obtained from social sites like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Google showed that the film was heading towards #1 at the box office ahead of newly released Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb and Annie, both of which were on par with each other.
Worldwide
As of January 13, 2015, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies has earned $237,180,324 in the United States and Canada and $545,300,000 in other territories for a worldwide total of $782,480,324. Worldwide, it is the second highest-grossing film of 2014[40] behind Transformers: Age of Extinction and the fiftieth highest-grossing film of all time. Its grosses exceeded its estimated $250 million production cost 12 days after its release, a feat also achieved by Marvel's The Avengers in 2012. The film reached a milestone of $100 million in 4 days, $300 million in 12 days, $400 million in 16 days, $500 million in 18 days, $600 million in 20 days and $700 million in 27 days.
North America
In North America, the film is the seventh highest-grossing film of 2014. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies opened in North America on Tuesday, December 16, 2014 at 7 p.m across 3,100 theaters and was widened to 3,875 theaters the next day. It earned $11.2 million from Tuesday midnight shows which was the second highest of 2014, matching the record previously set by Guardians of the Galaxy and both behind The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 ($17 million). It then topped the box office on its opening day (Wednesday, December 17, 2014), earning $24.5 million (including previews),[nb 1] which was the third highest middle-earth adaptation Wednesday opening behind the Wednesday openings of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ($34.5 million) and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers ($26.2 million). In total the film earned $54,724,334 in its traditional three-day opening and $89,131,544 over its five-day course making it the second biggest five-day opening in the Hobbit trilogy, beating the $86.1 million five-day opening gross of The Desolution of Smaug, but still behind An Unexpected Journey's $100.2 million five-day opening.
However, on a three-day basis the film underperformed expectations and fell short of its predecessors. The film set a December IMAX opening record with $13.4 million (previously held by Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol). 3D accounted for 49% of the total gross while IMAX generated 15% or $13.4 million over five days, and $7.4 million over three days, and premium large format screens comprised 8% of the total opening weekend gross with $7.2 million from 396 theaters. In CinemaScore polls conducted during the opening weekend, cinema audiences gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.
The film passed the $100 million mark on December 23, 2014 – on its seventh day. It became the third film of 2014 to earn $100 million in just under a week following Lionsgate's The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 ($168.7 million in its opening week) and Disney/Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy ($134.4 million in its first week). On January 2, 2015 (its 17th day of release) the film passed the $200 million mark. It was in first place at the North American box office for three consecutive weekends despite facing competition from numerous new releases each weekend, but was finally overtaken by Taken 3 in its fourth weekend.
Source : Wikipedia.
