Poster © Warner Bros. Pictures. Shown at reduced size for review and commentary.
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GenreAdventure & Fantasy
RatedPG-13
Runtime2 hr 49 mins
ReleasedDecember 14, 2012
StreamingSee Where to Watch
DirectorPeter Jackson
StarringIan McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage
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The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)
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| 🎫Get Tickets | ✎Edit History |
| iIMDb Profile | %Rotten Tomatoes |
| WWikipedia | LLetterboxd |
| TTMDB | +Add to Top 8 |
| The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey's Details | |
| Genre | Adventure & Fantasy |
| Rated | PG-13 |
| Released | 11/28/2012 (Wellington premiere); 12/12/2012 (New Zealand); 12/14/2012 (United States) |
| Streaming | See Where to Watch on this page. |
| Running Time | 2 hr 49 mins |
| Budget | $200–315M (reported) |
| Box Office | Updated daily from Box Office Mojo. See the numbers below. |
| Based On | The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien |
| Country | New Zealand, United States |
| Language | English |
| The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey's Interests | |
| General | Round doors, packed pantries, dwarves doing the dishes, an old map, a very important key. |
| Music | Howard Shore. The dwarves sing "Misty Mountains" by the fire and it gives you chills. |
| Movies | The first Lord of the Rings (2001). Same Shire, sixty years later. |
| Television | The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Middle-earth, thousands of years earlier. |
| Heroes | Thorin Oakenshield. Has the hair, the grudge and the dramatic entrance. |
| The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey's Crew | |
| Director | Peter Jackson |
| Writers | Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson, Guillermo del Toro |
| Producers | Carolynne Cunningham, Zane Weiner, Fran Walsh, Peter Jackson |
| Cinematography | Andrew Lesnie |
| Music | Howard Shore |
| Edited By | Jabez Olssen |
| Production | New Line Cinema, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, WingNut Films |
| Distributed By | Warner Bros. Pictures |
Quick reminder that The Hobbit is one fairly short book, and this is just the first of three movies made from it. You can feel the stretch. The dwarves arrive for dinner and the movie takes its sweet time clearing the dishes. Radagast the Brown rides a sled pulled by rabbits. A pale orc gets a whole revenge plot the story never needed. Then Martin Freeman shows up as Bilbo and quietly rescues it. His fussy, startled little hobbit is perfect casting, and the riddle game with Gollum in the dark is the best scene in the movie. Ian McKellen slides back under Gandalf’s hat like he never left. It made $1.017 billion worldwide, so clearly nobody minded the extra helpings. The movie.guru score is a 7.3. A 6.4 because the good parts are real Middle-earth magic and the rest feels like padding with a gorgeous set. $143 says you hum the dwarves’ mountain song under your breath for two whole days.
What works: Martin Freeman’s Bilbo and the riddle game with Gollum, which is tense, funny and creepy all at once.
What doesn’t: The long dinner party, the rabbit sled and an invented orc revenge plot pad a simple story into a very long movie.
Who it’s for: Lord of the Rings fans who’d happily spend 169 minutes anywhere in Middle-earth.
Spoilers
Bilbo wins the riddle game and slips away with Gollum’s ring, a secret he keeps from everyone. He saves Thorin from the pale orc Azog and finally earns his respect, giant eagles carry the company to safety, and the last shot is Smaug’s eye opening under a mountain of gold.
Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) is a hobbit who loves his armchair, his pantry and his quiet life in the Shire. Then the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) drops by, and thirteen dwarves turn up for dinner uninvited, led by Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage). They plan to take back their home under the Lonely Mountain from a dragon named Smaug, and they need a burglar. Bilbo says absolutely not. The next morning he sprints out the door anyway and forgets his handkerchief. Peter Jackson directs. One hundred sixty-nine minutes, plenty of time for second breakfast.
Anyone with a spare handkerchief. Bilbo left his at home.
| Martin Freeman | Young Bilbo Baggins |
| Ian McKellen | Gandalf the Grey |
| Richard Armitage | Thorin Oakenshield II |
| Ken Stott | Balin |
| Graham McTavish | Dwalin |
| Aidan Turner | Kíli |
| Dean O'Gorman | Fíli |
| Mark Hadlow | Dori |
| Jed Brophy | Nori |
| Adam Brown | Ori |
| John Callen | Óin |
| Peter Hambleton | Glóin |
| William Kircher | Bifur |
| James Nesbitt | Bofur |
| Stephen Hunter | Bombur |
| Cate Blanchett | Galadriel |
| Hugo Weaving | Elrond |
| Christopher Lee | Saruman the White |
| Elijah Wood | Frodo Baggins |
| Sylvester McCoy | Radagast the Brown |
| Andy Serkis | Gollum |
| Manu Bennett | Azog the Defiler |
| Barry Humphries | the Great Goblin |
| Conan Stevens | Bolg |
- (cur | prev) 14:30, 17 October 2026 DataBot +120 Numbers refreshed: Rotten Tomatoes 64%; Rotten Tomatoes critics 64% (303 reviews); movie.guru score 7.2 → 7.3.
- (cur | prev) 12:00, 17 October 2026 DataBot +2,000 Profile created from Wikipedia and Box Office Mojo: cast, crew, release dates, budget, official trailer.