Peter Jackson has pushed back the release date for the third installment of his Hobbit trilogy, “The Hobbit: There and Back Again,†for five months to December 2014, Warner Brothers announced. The news of the delay came as the first film in the series, “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,†neared the $1 billion mark in worldwide box-office sales, thanks in part to strong demand in China.
The second installment, “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,†remains on schedule to open this December. No reason was given for the delay, but Warner Brothers, the distributor, portrayed it as good news. “We’re excited to complete the trilogy the same way we started it, as a holiday treat for moviegoers everywhere,†Dan Fellman, president of domestic distribution for Warner Brothers, said.
