What Year Is It?! Two Lord Of The Rings Movies Just Returned To The Box Office Top 10

No, it's not the early 2000s. Be that as it may, not one but two "Lord of the Rings" movies found themselves comfortably in the top 10 at the box office this past weekend. Indeed, thanks to a re-release of Peter Jackson's much-beloved trilogy based on J.R.R. Tolkien's epic fantasy saga by Fathom Events, both "The Fellowship of the Ring" and "The Two Towers" managed to sneak past "The Strangers: Chapter 1" to make it onto the charts.

"Fellowship of the Ring" found itself at number eight over the weekend with a $2.45 million haul, just behind "The Fall Guy" ($2.59 million). Landing at number nine was "The Two Towers," which pulled in $1.9 million. Warner Bros. and Fathom released both films on just over 1,500 screens. What's more, these were the 4K remastered, extended editions of the films, meaning they clocked in at nearly four hours each. Plus, they played just once each day across the country, meaning fans didn't have a ton of options. Hence, the fact that two movies that are now more than 20 years old pulled in that much money on a non-anniversary under such limited circumstances is downright impressive.

Fathom and Warner Bros. will further benefit as well from Monday's re-release of the extended edition of "Return of the King." Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy kicked off with "Fellowship" in 2001, with the films pulling in more than $2.9 billion in their original runs. With "The Hobbit" trilogy factored in, the Middle-earth franchise has in total amassed $5.86 billion (and counting) to date. Even though the "Hobbit" trilogy is, to put it kindly, not as beloved as the "LOTR" trilogy, the films were still immensely popular. Whether or not a re-release of those films would draw similar interest is difficult to say, but I kindly doubt it.

The running total for "Fellowship of the Ring" now stands at $893.6 million worldwide, while "The Two Towers" now sits at $921 million. We'll see what happens with "Return of the King," but given that movie was only the second in history to make $1 billion, a couple million bucks won't change the narrative too much individually. But what these re-releases illustrate is the enduring popularity of the franchise overall. The fact that audiences happily turned up to watch four-hour cuts of these films in theaters on a weekend when they're readily available to watch from the comfort of home speaks volumes.

For one thing, it helps prove that audiences will show up when properly motivated, which is encouraging given how rough things have been at the box office in 2024 thus far. Beyond that, it's not remotely difficult to see why Warner Bros. is going all-in on continuing this franchise in the future. That begins later this year with the release of the animated "The War of the Rohirrim," which hits theaters in December. What can an animated prequel set within the universe of "The Lord of the Rings" do during the holiday season? It will be interesting to see what the appetite proves to be for such a movie. To what degree Prime Video's "Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" season 2 impacts things is a big question as well.

Beyond "Rohirrim," WB recently announced that Andy Serkis will direct a new live-action film titled "The Hunt for Gollum." Serkis will reprise his role as Gollum in addition to stepping behind the camera. While it would be easy for onlookers to view these as needless cash grabs, the audience is clearly there for it, assuming the movies themselves are good.

"The Lord Of The Rings: The War Of The Rohirrim" hits theaters on December 13, 2024.