By Amy Kaufman and Ben Fritz (Los Angeles Times)
"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" stands to collect more gold at the box office this weekend than the dragon Smaug is hoarding inside the Lonely Mountain.
Peter Jackson's 3-D prequel to "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy should open to between $120 million and $140 million in the U.S. and Canada this weekend, said people who have seen pre-release surveys. That would be the fifth-biggest domestic debut of the year.
All three "Rings" movies opened on a Wednesday. The most successful, 2003's "The Return of the King," took in $124 million during its first five days.
All told, the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy sold more than $2.9 billion worth of tickets worldwide.
While anticipation for "The Hobbit" is huge, with nearly 60% of moviegoers saying they are definitely interested in seeing the film, reviews have been mixed. Many critics have been particularly harsh on a version playing at 48 frames per second -- double the typical 24 -- that some say looks like high-definition television.
Hard-core fans are likely to turn out en masse for late-night shows starting at midnight Thursday. What remains to be seen is how many people with no affinity for elves, dwarfs and dragons will attend and whether the movie will play to family audiences who typically go to theaters together around Christmas.
The biggest question may be whether audiences are excited or frustrated by the epic length of "The Hobbit." "An Unexpected Journey" is nearly three hours, despite being one of three movies based on the single J.R.R. Tolkien book. To pad out the story, Jackson and his collaborators have added details from the appendices of "The Lord of the Rings" as well as invented material.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey released in UAE on 13th/Dec/2012. Lets see how the viewers of UAE will react to this new movie of Lord of the Rings series.
Check out the trailer below
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