There is no doubt the ongoing Hobbit film series has been a massive undertaking, even by blockbuster standards. Principal photography lasted over 15 months, with 266 filming days in total. There were 10 weeks of reshoots. The production used almost 50 top-of-the-range RED Epic cameras, and all scenes were shot in an expensive, largely untested high-frame rate of 48 frames-per-second. That's not going into the lengthy, troubled pre-production, time consuming post-production and various legal issues and controversies that have affected the films.
Now, it has been revealed that the production so far has cost somewhere in the region of 676 million New Zealand dollars - or around €412 million. Variety reports that documents presented to New Zealand's Companies Office detail the huge costs of the production, and that staggering sum doesn't include the reshoots and post-production that have been required to complete the films.
Such definitive figures are rarely released in relation to film budgets, with final details often reliant on rumours and speculation. In comparison, the Lord of the Rings films are estimated to have cost around €200 million altogether. The first two Pirates of the Caribbean sequels previously held the record for most expensive 'simultaneous production', suspected to have cost somewhere between €330 and €390 million. At World's End is still said to be the most expensive single film of all time.
Warner Bros. and Peter Jackson's own production companies won't be too concerned by the high price tag for The Hobbit, however. Although initially intended as a two-part story, the decision to expand into a full trilogy will increase the overall box office haul significantly. This is expected to justify the comparatively modest extra marketing and production costs involved in the release of a third film, which will predominantly use footage originally intended for the first two films.
Despite mixed reviews, the first film in the series performed extremely well in the box office, topping the US$1 billion mark (around €735 million) globally. Even in the unlikely even the subsequent films perform poorly, the production is likely to recoup their money with a healthy profit to boot.
The next film in the series, The Desolation of Smaug, is released in December. You can watch the latest trailer below. There and Back Again will follow in December 2014: delayed from the originally proposed summer release date. As was the case with the Lord of the Rings films, an extended version of An Unexpected Journey will be released in November.
