What is The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug's IQ Score?

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug has an IQ Score of 113/200 on TV Intelligentsia's Intelligence Quotient framework, placing it in the Competent tier. The score breaks down to 26/50 Cognitive Stimulation, 25/50 Educational Value, and 36/50 Craft & Quality.

Is The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug educational?

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is moderate on educational value, 25/50 on TVI's rubric. Some learning happens, but it isn't the show's primary work.

How does TV Intelligentsia calculate IQ Score?

TV Intelligentsia's current published formula is round((Cognitive Stimulation × 0.4 + Educational Value × 0.35 + Craft & Quality × 0.25) × 4), scoring titles from 0 to 200 across five tiers. TVI publishes a three-dimension breakdown only when those values reproduce the displayed composite. The framework is published at tvintelligentsia.com/methodology/.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug IQ Score 113/200

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug has an IQ Score of 113/200 on TV Intelligentsia's Intelligence Quotient rubric, placing it in the Competent tier.

By Jordan Robinson, MD, MPH·Updated 2026-08-22·Methodology

fantasyadventureaction

113/ 200

Competent

Engages without demanding much, watchable and reasonably crafted

Score Breakdown

Legacy score. Published under our earlier workflow, before the current standard took effect in August 2026. A founder reviewed and approved it against our methodology, under a process that does not meet the standard we hold now. What this means →

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Cognitive Stimulation/50

Educational Value/50

Craft & Quality/50

IQ = round((Cognitive × 0.4 + Educational × 0.35 + Craft × 0.25) × 4) · How we score →

What these dimensions mean

Cognitive Stimulation: observable narrative complexity, conceptual density, ambiguity, inference, and sustained intellectual demands in the work.
Educational Value: the density and integration of substantive academic, historical, scientific, cultural, ethical, or practical information in the work.
Craft & Quality: production excellence in service of the work, its direction, writing, performance, and aesthetic intent.

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Why you should trust this score

Scored under Jordan Robinson, MD, MPH

Physician and founding editor. Maintains the adult catalog against the published rubric and reviews the rubric application.

Methodology

Published rubric, v1.3.1

Formula

round((C × 0.40 + E × 0.35 + Q × 0.25) × 4)

Database scale

2,606 titles, version-controlled

TVI Canon

Peter Jackson →

How we stay independent. Editorial scores are not for sale. TVI may take on paid advisory or research work, but no commercial relationship buys coverage, advance access to scores, favorable treatment, or a change to a published finding. We pay for our own streaming subscriptions, and no reviewer sees sponsor data or affiliate revenue tied to a score. More about how we work →

The TVI Take

Peter Jackson's middle Hobbit chapter peaks with Smaug: Cumberbatch's motion-captured dragon and the molten-gold chase through Erebor are Weta at full power. But Jackson pads a slim book with invented material, Tauriel, the barrel-run set-piece, a love triangle, and the result is a handsomely built film carrying more spectacle than story.

Competent, not the register of the Rings trilogy.

People & Production Peter Jackson · Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer · United States 35 connections