I’m not sure there’s anyone out there who was eagerly anticipating even longer versions of the Hobbit trilogy, even the people who actually liked them. But you can relive the magic of being stuck in a theatre seat for what feels like eons this October, with new showings of the extended Hobbit trilogy.
The showings, which will take place over three days—because good lord, pity the poor person who would attempt to sit through roughly 9 hours of Hobbit films and come out of it sane of mind and with a butt that is still capable of feeling—are being put on as a collaboration between Fathom Events and Warner Bros., presumably to celebrate the Extended Edition release of The Battle of the Five Armies later this year. Fronted by an “exclusive introduction” from Peter Jackson himself, the three nights of cinematic butter-scraped-over-too-much-bread (to borrow from Bilbo) are currently only being planned for the US, and will be the first time the extended editions of the films have been released theatrically.
Only AMC currently has a listing for showing Battle of The Five Armies on October 13th, so it’s unknown as of yet whether theses screenings will just be restricted to AMC’s theatres or will be given a wider release. But honestly, at this point, do we really need a reminder of how overwrought and lengthy these movies ended up being? If Peter Jackson could cut down the entire film into one 3-hour movie, it’d still be butt-ruinously long, but it’d probably be truer to the pace of the original book. I’d pay to see a theatrical release of that!