Or no Hobbits at all...

[Boromir88]

but I feel that the older members of the Tolkien Estate(who are the ones participating in the lawsuit) harbour a feeling of resentment and anger towards the movies and would rather not have any more made(hence the audacious 'seeking a court order banning the Hobbit'.)~zxcvbn

Hearing from some friends, the Tolkien Estate has always been pleasant and helpful but the same can't be said for New Line. This is coming from an administrator of a forum who had to deal with both the Estate and New Line to avoid any sort of legal issues). Also, as I believe davem mentions the Tolkien Estate has given millions of dollars to several charities, whilst New Line has had a tendency to cheat people out of their due money.

Think of it this way...it's going to be a slightly different scenario, but it's virtually what the argument is here.

If a company wants to put your face on their merchandise and they say you will get 5% of the revenue they make from merchandise, but you don't see a penny of that money (or you don't get what they promised you) if they come to you again asking "hey can we put your face on our merchandise, you'll get 5%...etc) are you going to say yes a second time, knowing they cheated you before? Then why would the Estate let New Line continue to make these movies if New Line had not honoured their contract?