My view is that if they had attempted to show the Hobbit first there would not have been the opportunity to run it as a three-part series, and even if they had run it as one movie there would not have been the draw to it that LOTR had. In a perfect world, however, the Hobbit should have run first - but where profits are concerned, there can be no perfect world.
“but where profits are concerned, there can be no perfect world”
Yeah I guess that about sums it up. I can still dream though!