The Hobbit - 2 installments

I'm a huge LOTR fan but I still have to ask--why oh why are they making 2 movies out of  "The Hobbit"? It's one book! What, you can't fit that into a 3 hour movie? The movie studios are greedy little bastards. They obviously are trying to repeat the success of the Lord of the Rings trilogies which raked in probably over a billion. They want to cash in as many dollars as possible from the consumer because you know what? No matter what, we will still see the movie! It made sense that there were 3 movies, because there were 3 books plus prequel. But Hobbit isn't even a long book. It's the shortest out of the four and it's only a prequel about how the ring was found.

Well, Guillermo Del Toro is set to direct and Gandalf has signed on, so it should be pretty good. I'll see it, but I'm a little irked that I have to see the complete story in 2 installments. I hated the way "Pirates of the Caribean 2" ended with no resolve with "Pirates 3" totally sucking. But at least we know what happens already in "The Hobbit" and won't be left with the lamest cliff hanger as seen in Pirates 2.