Advance Tickets for The Hobbit at 48 FPS Now Available

Advance ticket sales for Peter Jackson’s upcoming epic The Hobbit have just gone on sale. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t post news about this – especially when it involves a movie I’m not even that familiar with. However, this release is big for another, technical reason: it’ll be the first 48 FPS film to hit the theaters.  All other films are run at 24 FPS, so there’s a definite intrigue surrounding this movie.

Talk of 48 FPS movies began to intensify this past spring when we learned that both James Cameron and Peter Jackson would be adopting the technology. With The Hobbit, Jackson will be the first to put it to use. Cameron’s first 48 FPS film will likely become Avatar 2, rumored for release sometime during 2015.

The reason 48 FPS is being touted by these directors and others is that it will result in much smoother playback of the films. A literal doubling of the framerate isn’t going to go unnoticed, especially when we’re dealing with such low numbers to begin with. While 24 FPS movies don’t appear “slow”, there’s definite room for improvement. What I’m curious to see is whether or not most people end up disliking 48 FPS because of how different the motion will appear. If you want an example of the difference it could result in, I recommend checking out Engadget’s comparison here.

As for the topic of this post, you will need to check your local cinema to see if you’ll be able to watch the 48 FPS version there – its website should definitely point it out. For easier searching, it might help to head on over to the official website and peruse the listings there. Key words to be on the lookout for are “HFR”, “High Frame-Rate” and of course, any mention of 48 FPS.

If you’re going to be seeing this film, will you be making a point to see the 48 FPS version?