The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is the last of Peter Jackson's trilogy

The twitter hashtag emblazoned on trailers and posters for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies says it all: #OneLastTime. But it's not just the end of director Peter Jackson's trilogy of films adapting J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy adventure about Bilbo Baggins, the timid hobbit who journeys to the Lonely Mountain to confront the dragon Smaug. It's the final time viewers, on screen at least, will be enveloped in Tolkien's Middle-earth, and the end of a journey that began 13 years ago with The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

Back then, that first part of Jackson's take on Tolkien's epic The Lord of the Rings was an unknown quantity. "Nobody knew what that was going to do or what kind of experience that would be, or whether it would find an audience - it was a huge gamble," reflects Orlando Bloom, one of the few actors to star in both trilogies (as the elf Legolas). He's right: when Jackson gathered his original cast to spend a year in New Zealand shooting three films back to back, it was an enormous risk.

In retrospect, it seems like a no-brainer, but hindsight is a wonderful thing. The three The Lord of the Rings movies collectively grossed US$2.91 billion around the globe; they were also nominated for 30 Oscars among them, winning 17 (including a remarkable 11-for-11 sweep for 2003's The Return of the King). While The Hobbit films' Oscar total so far is less impressive (six nods, no wins), the two released so far have already grossed US$1.98 billion.

Although this trilogy's total box office takings could quite easily surpass that of The Lord of the Rings when The Battle of the Five Armies has finished its run, there are signs that cinema-goers are ready to say goodbye to Middle-earth.

Perhaps watching the adventures of Bilbo, Gandalf and the 13 dwarves that accompany them on their dragon-slaying mission over the course of three movies was overkill. After all, Jackson had originally decided to shoot Tolkien's book over two films. But that, as Bilbo actor Martin Freeman points out, was no surprise: "Pete doesn't make short films, and we know he likes filming stuff."