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Felix Quinonez: I agree with what has already been said. I really think that audiences were ready to embrace these hobbit films because The Lord of the Rings was such a beloved franchise but The Hobbit killed a lot of the goodwill that audiences felt. I saw The Hobbit ready to love it and even I was disappointed by it, so I can only imagine how let down less forgiving audiences might have felt. I think it's very hard to hide the fact or deny that these movies are desperately trying to milk the cow for as much money as possible and people have realized this. And while the reviews were a little better this time around, they are still far below any of the LOTR films so people on the fence wouldn't have been swayed to give this one a chance after the disappointing first chapter.

Kim Hollis: As others have mentioned, I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who doesn't believe that the lessened quality of the first Hobbit film is largely to blame for the decline of the second movie in the series. I also think it's really important to reiterate that we're talking about a 300-page, briskly-paced book that has been stretched out to three almost three-hour movies. I'm pretty sure I could read the book itself in about the time it takes to watch one single movie. For the second movie, a lot of material was added and not only was it unnecessary, it wasn't particularly interesting. I'm one of the biggest Tolkien fans out there and I was still sort of like, "Eh, I'll go see it, I guess."

Bruce Hall: You sure can't discount the impact of inclement weather in some of America's most populated regions. Piles of snow, high winds, cats and dogs living together - equals countless thousands of geeks staying home to fight dragons on the Xbox rather than watch them in the theater. Clearly, The Hobbit's target audience also had more alternatives to choose from this time than they did before - Frozen is still doing big business and lot of people decided to go that way instead of back to Middle Earth. Thor and Catching Fire round out this week's top five, playing less of a factor but no doubt cannibalizing at least some portion of The Hobbit's coveted Nerd Demographic.

But let's not ignore the 800 (thousand) pound Smaug in the room. A lot of people saw An Unexpected Journey, and a lot of them hated it. And when genre dictates an already front loaded box office, poor word-of-mouth from legions of angry fanboys can have a lasting effect. This is purely anecdotal of course, but to many people Peter Jackson's new trilogy feels more cynical and less inspired than the first. I do think it's had a financial effect on the box office, but I couldn't give you a dollar amount.

Still, we're talking about a film that has earned $73 million domestically, plus an additional $130 million internationally, all in one weekend. This is still going to be a hugely profitable film, and those who dismiss it as a "cash grab" will be technically correct. But those hoping for the same experience they got from the original trilogy seem to be coming away disappointed, or just staying away altogether.

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