Best intermissions for extended Lord of the Rings trilogy?

My wife and I are planning on watching the entire extended Lord of the Rings trilogy. (It helps that iTunes is currently selling the bundle for $30.) The only practical approach for us is to watch it six roughly equal parts.

We've seen the original trilogy, but I'm not equipped to make the right call for when to stop each of these films in the middle (-ish). Rather than make a spontaneous decision, I'd rather know going in at what time we're stopping for an intermission.

What's the best spot in each of the three films for this? Ideally I'd get something like "Right after <scene>, at about <time> into the movie.

 

The disc versions are broken across two discs, even on Blu-ray. It's very possible the extended digital cuts may still have the cut to black at that point, which may help, but I can't confirm that.

Found this post that may help:
Length of Lord of the Rings Extended movies

Last chapter before the split:
FOTR: 27, The Council Of Elrond (right after "where are we going?", I believe)
TT: 30, Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit (right after "bind their hands", I think)
ROTK: 36, The Siege of Gondor (after a weapon called Grond is introduced)

Making a 6-night marathon out of it is definitely the way to go, if you're not going to make it an all-day event. Which I've done. And it's absolutely worth it.

 

You might try the first one and just see how it goes. For me, the extended editions are the only way to go and they flow just as well as the theatrical versions, if not better, so it's not hard to watch an entire film in one sitting, sans the occasional bathroom and/or snack break. I've even managed to sit through two of the extended films back-to-back, but I did have herbal assistance.

 

Hey thanks! It didn't occur to me that there might be hard breaks on the disc versions. But yeah, I think we're going to start tonight, so I'll know soon enough if that approach is working.

I am kinda sorta the type of person who would make a marathon out of the whole thing. Seems like a fun and exhausting journey. Still, there's the matter of time and energy...

 

Just reading your headline, I was going to recommend the Rankin-Bass animated versions as palate cleansers, but I see that's not what you meant.

 

Ha!

 

Ideally, I'd say whenever you can get your wife to put the elf ears on, and complimenting you on your runes...