Warner Bros. has just released the following two The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug TV spots while news of Peter Jackson‘s latest trip to Middle Earth has reportedly cost north of $560 million so far with one film yet to be completed. This is double the amount spent on the three movies in the the Lord of the Rings series, which is estimated to have cost $281 million.
The figure is said to include the major 266 days of filming with actors, although it doesn’t include an additional two months or so of “pick-up” shoots. And with a couple of months left to go before the second is released and a year until we see the final chapter, The Hobbit: There and Back Again, the spending isn’t done yet and this report is, apparently, only through the month of March of this year.
Of course, given the fact The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey grossed $1.017 billion worldwide and Desolation of Smaug expected to match, if not exceed, that number and the same goes for There and Back Again, it’s hard to argue with spending so much. This is all before you consider all the merchandise, DVDs, Blu-rays, etc. that come as a result of such a massive franchise.
Desolation of Smaug is set to hit theaters on December 13, check out the two new TV spots directly below.
