The Hobbit Trilogy Marathon Coming To IMAX

The final installment in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy, titled The Battle of the Five Armies, is set to be released December 17. However, as a celebration of the second middle earth trilogy to be completed, marathons will be held in select IMAX theaters across the country. On December 15, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will play at 1pm, The Desolation of Smaug will play at 4pm, then The Battle of Five Armies will premiere at 7pm! Tickets go on sale Friday, November 14.

We left off with Bilbo Baggins, Thorin Oakenshield and his band of dwarves having unwillingly released Smaug the dragon onto the world. Enraged, Smaug rains down fire on Lake-town, killing men, women, and children without remorse. Meanwhile, hidden in the shadows, and unseen by almost everyone except the wizard Gandalf, the enemy Sauron has returned, and sent his Orc army to attack the Lonely Mountain, where Bilbo and Thorin now call home.

The Hobbit trilogy came into fruition after the massive success of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, particularly The Return of the King, which won 11 Oscars. This new trilogy has cost an astonishing $775 million to make, but hasn’t exactly shared the same critical success of the previous trilogy.

However, it has achieved massive box office success, with the first two films bringing in roughly a billion dollars each. The third film is looking to be bigger and grander than the previous two, with Jackson himself stating that this is his favorite of the three, and the film is “thrilling”. The Lord of the Rings movies are known for their epic, large scale battles, but apparently this third film will take it to the next level, with the final battle reported to be 45 minutes long.

The film’s unbelievable cast includes Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Evangeline Lilly, Lee Pace, Luke Evans, Benedict Cumberbatch, Stephen Fry, Cate Blanchett, Ian Holm, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving, Ken Stott, James Nesbitt, Orlando Bloom, John Bell, Manu Bennett, Jed Brophy, Adam Brown, John Callen, Billy Connolly, Ryan Gage, Mark Hadlow, Peter Hambleton, Stephen Hunter, William Kircher, Lawrence Makoare, Sylvester McCoy, Graham McTavish, Dean O’Gorman, Mikael Persbrandt and Aidan Turner.

The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies opens December 17. Or you can see it two days earlier, during the IMAX marathon, on December 15.