BOX OFFICE: THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG Passes $400 Million Worldwide

Thor has done awesome! How far behind Man of Steel is it? Like $35 million? Don't wanna knock MoS, just nice to see a B-List character come so far as to keep up with Supes.

Alan Taylor made us a great film, and it deserves all the recognition it gets.

Why would you compare Thor 2 to MOS?
Compare Thor to MOS: $450M, worldwide vs $650M, worldwide.

Compare Thor 2 to MOS 2.

@Battabing

A few reasons to compare Thor 2 to MoS:

1. They have same release year.
2. Superman is instantly recognizable. Thor was not for his first movie.
3. I can compare whatever I want.

Like I said, wasn't knocking Superman. Just nice to see a lesser known character competing with the icons.

I would compare Thor 2 to MoS 2, but we aren't getting a MoS 2, are we...?

I'm glad you hard core Tolkien fans are getting to see your favorite characters on screen, but even you guys have to admit that taking a book that is thinner than any one of the LOTR books, and stretching it out in to 3 movies is just a big greedy a#$ fu%k to fans and general movie goers. I think the second movie really suffered because of this decision. With so many extended landscape shots, the movie could've easily been a tourist promo for New Zealand.

It didn't make as much as the Avengers so i guess its not a success... that is how it works around here isnt it?

@MercwithMouth, it actually wasnt that bad. I liked the first one A LOT better though. Because for a 2:40 minute movie, they really didnt cover alot of the story. They really should have just made it 2 movies and cut out alot of the filler BS. Dont want to talk to much about it but when you see it you will know what im talking about.

@Mister

I've heard a lot of that . I was surprised when they first announced a trilogy. Thought it was a terrible idea. There's just not enough in the book for 3 movies.

Here's a question...

Who else thinks if Thor 2 had a early May or July release date, it would've gotten to $800 million?

I really dug Thor 2.

@jc

Maybe because she's a well portrayed character? And she's the second most important SHIELD member in the MCU behind Fury?

Jesus H CHRIST, who are these people who think the Hobbit as a book is only enough story for one movie let alone two?

Anyone saying that crap obviously aint read the Hobbit or all the other stuff Tolkien wrote around the Hobbit's timeline to bring it into line with the rest of the Lord of the Rings.

First of all, The Hobbit is a book written for children, it has no real dramatized content let alone alternate character narratives. The entire tale is told from one character's perspective.. Bilbo, just like many kiddie books. Even if Peter Jackson only dramatized events from that book, the sheer amounts of event that happen in that book would be enough for two movies or at least a 3 and a half hour flick not to mention all the bloody songs they left out.

The thing none of these people who keep moaning about it being one book stretched into three movies don't have a clue about is that its not just one bloody book. Tolkien wrote a fraking TIMELINE ok? He realized after beginning work on the far more serious and mature Lord of the Rings books, that he needed to write a more serious version of the Hobbit and include some characters he only invented after starting Lord of the Rings, like Legolas. Unfortunately the publishers wouldn't let him rewrite what was now a best selling and celebrated book so he made revisions to some chapters like how Bilbo won the ring from Gollum (originally Gollum bet the ring in the game and after losing parted amicably) and wrote a series of short stories expalining the events surrounding the Hobbit especially the many disappearances of Gandalf in that book and where he went (The White Council meetings and the expedition to Don Goldur as seen in the movie). These were not dramatized either because they were only short narrative tales contained in the appendices of Return of the King and the Silmarrilion as well as The Unfinished Tales of Numenor. Basically all the stuff people can't be asked to read at the end of the book and anything gathered by his son Christopher Tolkien after his death as is the case with the latter two books.

These movies are an adaptation of that entire timeline as explained by all the works of Tolkien, not just a simplistic adaptation of the childrens book that bears very little in tone with the Lord of the Rings books. To make a movie that simple as a companion piece to the other movies would be like adding an episode of Adam West's Batman as a prequel to Chris Nolan's Dark Knight. The dwarves in the book are like the type you find in Snow White for crissakes!

Jackson and crew have done exemplary work adapting the timeline while staying faithful to the tone of the book with its many songs, by letting it start of very light and then gradually getting more and more dark and mature just like the book. So by the time the events of the final movie have concluded and the threat of Sauron has also been relieved (as was Tolkiens intent with his failed attempt to rewrite the Hobbit) the tone will match the Lord of the Rings movies for perfect back to back viewing.

Desolation of Smaug does its job of bridging the lighter start of the tale that the first film presented perfectly. Its a darker film and like The Empire Strikes Back is very much a cliffhanger episode of a movie. Watch or don't watch, that's your prerogative but quit talking crap about the Book being stretched out to three films, its a bloody timeline adaption, not a just a book.

"Don't wanna knock MoS" he says with an avatar of Goku pissing on Superman's symbol...

Just kiddin', @MercwithMouth. I just found it funny.

@kinghulk

"so Thor the dark world has out earned iron man 2."

Yep. In fact, the only MCU movies that have grossed more are Iron Man 3 and The Avengers.

@jc

That's cool man. I guess I assumed that you were raggin on Romanov. Seeing as how so many do. It's all good, my bad.

@MercwithMouth

Not a problem. I don't get the all the criticism Scarlet gets. Girl has been a trooper from the start.

@kinghulk

"well thats good i can only hope the winter soldier does even better than Thor the dark world, despite being a very good film it made the least of phase 1 films with the exception of the incredible hulk."

Agreed. The Winter Soldier, I'm anticipating even more than The Dark World. When watching The Dark World, I saw the preview of Captain America's fight in that elevator. It was an absolute crowd pleaser. Best fight scene Marvel has ever shot in my opinion. If the rest of the movie has fight scenes like that... *whistle*