'The Hobbit' Will Not Be Shown at the Higher Frame Rate in Most Theaters

It looks like Warner Bros. and/or Peter Jackson are continuing to backslide on their commitment to the 48fps that The Hobbit was originally going to be projected in. A disastrous CinemaCon presentation had Jackson explaining that audiences needed more time than a few clips would give to adjust to the new frame-rate. Then, the much anticipated Comic-Con presentation showed footage at the standard 24fps. Now, Variety is reporting that WB is not even planning on sending the 48fps version to most theaters.

It seems that they're hedging their bets a little. If the 48fps goes over well with the small group of "test" audiences, they'll roll it out to additional theaters for the second and third installments.

To be honest, while I'm very excited at the prospect of higher frame rates, I feel like The Hobbit is way too big of a movie to be trying this out on. I understand the "go big or go home" mentality when trying to break the norm in the film industry, but I'd hate to see a movie like this potentially ruined because the technology wasn't quite there yet.

I'll happily go see it in 48fps when it arrives, but I'm just glad that other moviegoers at least have the option to do otherwise.