<P> The score for An Unexpected Journey was primarily played by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, as it was for The Lord of the Rings, although Jackson and Shore chose the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra to score The Desolation of Smaug and The Battle of the Five Armies . Musicians Neil Finn and Ed Sheeran contributed to the score as well as some actors including Richard Armitage and the cast of dwarves and James Nesbitt (in the extended edition). </P> <P> As with The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Weta Digital was involved in the creation of special effects . However, as opposed to The Lord of the Rings, where the actors who played Orcs portrayed them through full - body makeup and prosthetics, many of those actors in The Hobbit had computer - generated faces in order to portray them . Many of the actors who played Orcs in this trilogy portrayed them through performance capture . Also, motion capture was used in order to be created places as depicted in the film . </P> <P> The world premiere for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey took place on 28 November 2012 in Wellington, New Zealand, with the film's wide release in New Zealand on 12 December . 100,000 people lined the red carpet on Wellington's Courtenay Place for the premiere . The entire event was also broadcast live on TV3 and streamed over the Internet . Tickets to the film's midnight screenings in New Zealand sold out within minutes of going on sale, prompting director Peter Jackson to say that the fans who missed out "may get something special" which could include getting to see the film "possibly even a minute or two before anyone else". The film was released on 13 December 2012 in the United Kingdom and 14 December 2012 for some other parts of the world . It has a runtime of 169 minutes (2 hours and 49 minutes). The film grossed over $1 billion at the box office, surpassing both The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers nominally . </P> <P> The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug premiered on 2 December 2013 in Los Angeles, and was released internationally from 11 December 2013 . It grossed over $958 million in box office worldwide . Like the previous installment, it surpassed both The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers in nominal box office performance . </P>

When did the first hobbit movie come out