I walked out of the first lord of the rings an hour and a Half in when it was still character building. I mentioned to my gf at the time and she said it'll prob be 3 years before the second part and 6+ for the third. And no, obviously I never read The books.
I hate watching series waiting a week between cliffhangers... Couldn't care less to wait years.. Still haven't caught up.
They came out in 2001, 2002, and 2003 which was a cinematic triumph at the time because he secured funding and filming rights to film all three movies at the same time.