The Hobbit down to 69% on RT, 59/100 on Metacritic
 

Not looking good....
This is what happens when you stretch one book into three movies.
Having LOTR be three movies was perfectly understandable as the one book was divided up into three parts to begin with. But I mean...Somehow Gone with the Wind (a 1,000 page novel) was able to be made into ONE 3 hour film...Yet The Hobbit is about 350 pages and needs 3 films which each span 3 hours?

UPDATE: Now down 68%

Emperor's New Clothes????

I was reading a CNN review (not like it'll sway me I'm seeing the movie regardless), but I saw this and had a chuckle

I like movies. I like the LOTR trilogy as movies, not as adaptations to a book. I don't have high hopes for The Hobbit, but I always ignore RT's reviews anyway. Even when I agree with them.

This movie is a masterpiece. It feels very much like a book adaptation, with long scenes of dialogue between characters that haven't been to vigorously cut down.
It is a very, very good movie. The acting is - with one exception - uniformly brilliant. The soundtrack is as hauntingly beautiful as one would expect. And the story goes nice and slowly, never trying to rush to the conclusion, takings its time and allowing the audience to slowly become reacquainted to the grandeur and danger of Middle Earth.

What else can I say? I adored this film, it was a marvelous experience. At no point was I bored or checking my watch, I was hooked from the beginning and never lost interest.

Let the reviewers say what they will, they are entitled to their opinions. But I maintain that this was a magnificent achievement that both hearkens back to The Lord of The Rings and at the same time maintains the more jaunty, fantastical ethos of the source material.

Now it is 65% on Rotten Tomatoes, and 58 on Metacritic. I respect Metacritic. I say this though: Do not listen to the critics. Critics give the film positive and negative reviews but most are comparing the film to the LOTR films and the Hobbit book. This is unfair. Critics should just judge the film, not how faithful it was to the book. I'm ok with the criticism of the 48 fps thing. You should watch the film and make your own judgement.
Oh, and it's 8.6/10 on IMDB.

Now down to 42% on RT, good and rotten. Only four percentage points above The Phantom Menace!

I'm lovin' it.

Just the Facts
 

Best 2 week open for any Jackson Tolkien movie:

Total Lifetime Grosses
Domestic:
$189,783,000
33.7%
+ Foreign:
$373,000,000
66.3%
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
= Worldwide:
$562,783,000
Domestic Summary
Opening Weekend:
$84,617,303
(#1 rank, 4,045 theaters, $20,919 average)
% of Total Gross:
44.6%
Widest Release:
4,100 theaters
In Release:
14 days / 2 weeks