INSTITUTIONS:
The Hobbit was directed by Peter Jackson - the director of Lord of the Rings and King Kong. The Hobbit was produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer who also produced Poltergeist and Skyfall. Warner Brothers distributed The Hobbit globally. They also distributed The Dark Knight, American Sniper and Harry Potter.
The Hobbit made $55M during its opening weekend and has since gone on to make a worldwide, lifetime gross of $956M.
AUDIENCE:
The target audience for The Hobbit is teenage and young adult males and females of any ethnicity, interested in films with far-fetched narratives. The censorship classification is PG-13 making it easy to attract the target audience.
Critics had varied opinions on this movie; the result was a Metascore of 58/100. Some felt that the film was just an excuse to 'show-off' visual effects and felt that the storyline was 'acceptable' rather than 'exceptional'.
GENRE & CONVENTIONS:
The Hobbit is an adventure/fantasy film with conventionally 'wacky' and mystical characters, such as Gollum and Gandalf. Characters such as these are typical of this particular genre, as are adventurous narratives, and are therefore what audiences expect to see. Narrative conclusions are essential for this genre.
Similar films to The Hobbit include Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Carribean for their similar conventions and character types. The Hobbit is extremely typical of the adventure and fantasy genres.