News article on The Hobbit trilogy to be split across two pages

After seeing how Warner Bros and Lionsgate doubled their profits from the final books in the Harry Potter and Twilight series by splitting them into two films, Peter Jackson has gone one better and split JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit into a trilogy, averaging around 99 pages per movie. We investigate after the jump, then in more detail after another jump.

We made discontented grumbles when it was originally announced that Peter Jackson was intending to make two films out of The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey to be released in December 2012 and There And Back Again in December 2013 - but with the director's decision to squeeze another movie out of the source book, those grumbles have evolved into full-on whines. How can he justify it?

Making a statement on his official Facebook page (which you can read in full on the second page of this article), Jackson officially announced the third Hobbit movie after weeks of speculation: "Without further ado and on behalf of New Line Cinema, Warner Bros. Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Wingnut Films, and the entire cast and crew of The Hobbit films, I'd like to announce that two films will become three."

Can Jackson justify filming three movies from one book? Read our thoughts on page 2.