It might be worth mentioning that the Lord of the Rings trilogy cost $281m (according to Wikipedia). Adjusting for inflation (2003 to 2014) it would be $363m today.
In other words, The Hobbit has used twice the budget at (arguably) less quality.

Something tells me a large part of that budget was all the CGI. They *could've* just used models like they did for the Lord of the Rings movies, but no…