Peter Jackson and Warner Bros. have officially changed the title of the final film in his Hobbit Trilogy from The Hobbit: There and Back Again to The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies.  The new title, with its military reference to a complex battle, certainly gives more an "action movie" patina to the final Hobbit film, which is slated to debut nationwide on December 17th, 2014.
 
Jackson took to Facebook to explain the  change: "Our journey to make The Hobbit Trilogy has been in some ways like Bilbo's own, with hidden paths revealing their secrets to us as we've gone along.  There and Back Again felt like the right name for the second of a two film telling of the quest to reclaim Erebor, when Bilbo’s arrival there, and departure, were both contained within the second film.  But with three movies, it suddenly felt misplaced--after all, Bilbo has already arrived "there" in the Desolation of Smaug.  When we did the premiere trip late last year, I had a quiet conversation with the studio about the idea of revisiting the title.  We decided to keep an open mind until a cut of the film was ready to look at.  We reached that point last week, and after viewing the movie, we all agreed there is now one title that feels completely appropriate."
 
The name change certainly won’t hurt Ares Games’ The Battle of the Five Armies board game (see "'The Battle of the Five Armies' Board Game"), which Ares plans to preview at this year’s Gen Con (see "Ares to Unveil 'Dino Race,' 'Battle of the Five Armies'").