Though the film only just hit theaters a month ago, the first details for the Blu-ray of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey may have surfaced online.  According to an ad for the French release of the Blu-ray, the disc will include 2 hours of supplemental material including a “making of” and 10 video blogs.  Director Peter Jackson has been more than generous with regards to giving fans a peek inside the production by releasing video blogs online over the past couple of years, so I’m interested to see what other kind of behind-the-scenes featurette has been created for the home video release.  Hit the jump for more, including an image of the French Blu-ray covers.

Welcome to 2013, folks. If you’re reading this it means that you survived the Mayan Apocalypse, the first Dick Clark-less New Year’s Rockin’ Eve celebration in like four decades, likely some sort of mandatory holiday time with your extended family, and incessant political jabber about some sort of “fiscal cliff”, all in a matter of about two weeks. Congratulations on a job well done. In spite of all these accomplishments, though, odds are you still haven’t spent any part of 2013 hanging out with Arnold Schwarzenegger and his tank. So, to this point, our Dave Trumbore still wins 2013.

All tank envy aside, let’s keep our heads up and focus on the first Top 5 installment of the new year. This week’s recap includes Brendan’s editorial plea for giving 48fps the old college try, Justice League rumors, Matt’s Warm Bodies set visit and ensuing zombie transformation, news of Jay-Z being brought on to score Baz Luhrmann‘s The Great Gatsby, and the results of our first ever readers poll that asked for your top movies of 2012. Brief recaps and links to all of the above are dying for your attention after the jump.

It’s January 1, 2013, which means that 2012 is now officially in the rear-view mirror.  Quality-wise, it was a stellar year in film, and with over a month to go before the Oscars there’s still an exciting air of unpredictability surrounding the awards contenders.  2012 wasn’t so shabby box office-wise either, and we thought today would be a nice time to take a look back at the year’s highest grossing films, lowest grossing films, and everything in between.  This year saw a few comedy surprises, the highest grossing Steven Spielberg drama in a long time, a couple of superhero megahits, and the glorious disaster that was Oogieloves.  Hit the jump to take a look at 2012’s Box Office in Review.

If you are at Collider, you probably watch a lot of movies.  Based on our demographics, most of you have seen The Hobbit.  A significant portion of you will see The Hobbit in 48 frames per second.  Virtually all of you who do will think the higher frame rate looks strange, at least at first.  And yet, Hobbit director Peter Jackson proclaims 48fps is the future of filmmaking.  Critics are far from convinced, calling the new look “a gaudy high-definition tourist attraction” and “washed out and flat, yet unforgiving in its hyper-realism.”

Jackson’s push for 48fps (also known as High Frame Rate or HFR) has sparked a surprisingly heated debate over what seems like a relatively simple technological innovation.  Although my first viewing of The Hobbit was a peculiar experience, I am a believer in 48fps.  So after the jump, I examine the arguments for and against 48fps, the neuroscience behind the negative response, and what it will take for HFR to find widespread acceptance.

It looks like Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has outpaced the competition to take the top spot in 2012′s final box office with $32.9 million.  Opening films Django Unchained, Les Miserables and Parental Guidance followed in box office order with Jack Reacher rounding out the top five.

Though it’s only been in theaters for less than two weeks, director Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has already crossed the $500 million mark worldwide at the box office.  It’s current $523.7 million total is definitely an impressive achievement—especially since Return of the King made $1.1 billion worldwide in total—but the fact remains that the film’s domestic box office is a tad soft.  The film dropped 56% from its opening weekend total of $84 million to $36.9 million in its second weekend, and that’s with higher 3D ticket prices.  Hit the jump for more.

As most of our regular readers may have figured out from our quarterly “Most Anticipated” articles, my movie preferences heavily favor the genre films. I’m a fan of spectacle, big action, larger-than-life characters and borderline-ridiculous premises. I’m always happy to see great performances on screen, but as long as I’m having some sort of visceral response to the film in question, it works for me. I’m not artsy or indie, I don’t have access to festivals and screeners; I’m out there in the ticket lines and sub-par theaters like the majority of the blue-collars out there. It’s a foregone conclusion that you will disagree with me, so be sure to vote for your own top ten here. You’ll find my ten favorite movies from 2012 after the jump.

As 2012 winds down to a close, it’s tough to see us having another year filled with so many good movies anytime soon. Nevertheless, looking to 2013 there’s certainly reason to be excited, and what better way to kick off the new year than to take a look at what 2013 has in store for us by way of blockbuster filmmaking?  We’ve compiled a list of 20 “blockbusters” to look forward to in the coming year, and the resulting preview teases some promisingly diverse fare.  Naturally there’s no lack of superhero movies headed our way, but we’ve also got a great mix of exciting entries in horror, comedy, sci-fi, and drama to look forward to.  Hit the jump to take a look at our 2013 Blockbuster Preview.

With Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey now playing around the world, it’s time to post the last interview I did at the NYC press day and it’s with screenwriter Philippa Boyens.  While Jackson gets most of the credit for the Lord of the Rings, Boyens has been an absolutely crucial part of the adaptations, having co-written Fellowship, The Two Towers, Return of the King, all three Hobbit films, and also acting as a co-producer on The Hobbit trilogy.  She’s a key player in helping to bring J. R. R. Tolkien’s work to life.

During my extended interview we talked about the themes of The Hobbit, the differences between Hobbit and LOTR, setting up the LOTR movies in the beginning of The Hobbit, the eventual Blu-ray extended cut, deleted scenes, whether The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug will be the same length as An Unexpected Journey, what they still need to still film next year, changes on set, what props she has taken home, and more.  Hit the jump for more.

Say what you will about the merits of high frame rate, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has provided some amazing visual and sound effects achievements. Now, two new featurettes have been released that take you behind the scenes of Peter Jackson’s epic adventure film and show you how much effort went in to those creations. Whether it’s the practical costumes and make-up of the Hobbit, Dwarf, Elf or Wizard characters, or the purely digital creations of Trolls, Orcs and Gobilns, the visual effects continue to exist on the leading edge of technology. And while Adam Chitwood, Matt Goldberg and I disagreed on the effectiveness of some of the visuals in The Hobbit, each of us was on board with the score, musical cues and sound effects in the film. Hit the jump to check out two featurettes that delve into these arts (presuming you’ve seen the film already). 

This week on The Collision, we’ll be talking about the The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, HFR 3D, what it means for the future of cinema, the rise and fall of fan enthusiasm for The Hobbit, and as always we’ll finish up with our recommendations.

Click here to listen to the new episode of The Collision, click here for the previous episode (“The Beginning of Awards Season 2012″), click here to add the podcast to your RSS, and click here to find us on iTunes. To keep up to date with The Collision, you can follow us on Twitter at @MattGoldberg, @AdamChitwood, and @DrClawMD (Dave Trumbore). Hit the jump to check out the trailers for this week’s recommendations.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy stands as a singular achievement in the history of cinema.  Peter Jackson would have to be crazy to return to this world in the shadow of the enormous financial and artistic success of the Rings series.  Thankfully Jackson is crazy, and just kicked off another Tolkien-based trilogy with the release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. To explore the legacy of The Lord of the Rings and how The Hobbit matches up, I tried to capture how the series has evolved over the last decade with Middle-earth by the Numbers.  The feature provides a numbers-based snapshot of each movie and its place in the filmography by looking at the box office, critical reception, and miscellaneous facts.

Hit the jump for a comprehensive review of Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, Return of the King, and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has narrowed down the contenders for the Best Makeup and Hairstyling Oscar for the upcoming 85th Academy Awards.  The shortlist includes showy stuff like Hitchcock and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, along with the more subdued work like Looper, Lincoln, and Snow White and the Huntsman.  The one to watch for the win, though, is Rick Baker’s excellent makeup effects from Men in Black 3 as Baker has previously won this award 7 times, including for 1997′s Men in Black.  Notably left out of the race is Cloud Atlas, which put makeup to heavy use in order for its ensemble of actors to play multiple roles, switching race and gender.  Response to the film’s makeup work was fairly split, but I’m surprised it didn’t at least make the Oscar shortlist.

Hit the jump to check out the full list of all seven films that remain in competition for the Best Makeup and Hairstyling trophy.  The nominations for the Oscars will be announced on January 10th, followed by the ceremony on February 24th.

I offered a similar sentiment following the tragedy at Aurora, CO back in July and I’ll do the same today: the event that unfolded yesterday in Newtown, CT is inexcusable and genuinely heartbreaking, even from a distance. The optimist in me wants to believe that any negative situation can be used to educate and improve the world we live in going forward. In this case, I’m hopeful but unsure that’s possible. On behalf of everyone here at Collider, I want to offer our deepest condolences to the family and friends of those who were lost yesterday.

As petty as it may seem, I feel fortunate to be able to offer a bit of diversion to your day with this week’s Top 5. Included in a trailer-heavy rotation this week is a new cut from Zack Snyder‘s Man of Steel, The Hobbit interviews with Martin Freeman, Andy Serkis and more, the first trailer for Guillermo del Toro‘s Pacific Rim, Andre’s coverage from his Gangster Squad set visit, and the first look at Will Smith and Jaden Smith gallivanting across the human unfriendly Mother Earth found in M. Night Shyamalan’s After Earth. A brief recap and link to each will greet you after the jump.

Director Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy is one of the most successful and beloved franchises of all time, so we knew that his three-film adaptation of The Hobbit would come with a certain level of anticipation.  After years of waiting, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey final hits theaters this weekend, and we’ve already shared two reviews here at Collider: one from Matt Goldberg (right here) and one from Dave Trumbore (right here).  Unsurprisingly, both reviews elicited a rather vocal response from our readers in the comments section.

Given the high profile nature of An Unexpected Journey and its passionate reception from fans, we thought it would be nice to hear from you, dear readers, about what you thought of the film.  Hit the jump to share your thoughts on all things Hobbit and/or 48 frames-per-second.