Sir Peter Jackson's two-film adaptation of J R R Tolkien's The Hobbit has release dates.
New Line Cinema, Warner Bros. and MGM announced Monday that The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will be released on December 14, 2012.
The sequel, The Hobbit: There and Back Again, is to be released on December 13, 2013.
The films have suffered repeated delays over studio funding problems, a threatened actors' boycott and ulcer surgery for Jackson.
Shot consecutively, they began filming in March in New Zealand.
The 3-D Hobbit films are prequels to Jackson's Oscars-winning Lord of the Rings trilogy.
The movies star Martin Freeman, Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Cate Blanchett and Orlando Bloom.
