I do not know if this will shock you as much as it shocked me BUT
On the 17th of December 2023 the third instalment of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy,
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
Is 20 years old!! 20!!
The Lord of the Rings movies kicked off in 2001 with “The Fellowship of the Ring” followed by “The Two Towers” in 2002 then “Return of the King” in 2003.
These movies totally dominated the box office for three years in those sweet sweet pre-marvel domination years.
These films have proved themselves to be a pure “lightning in a bottle” type occurrence.
These films have not been topped in my opinion even with 20 years of technical advancements and with Peter Jackson himself trying to rekindle the magic by doing the Hobbit movies… nope!
To think these movies were made and released during the height of the
“Piracy is killing cinema hysteria”
A skilled filmmaker using primarily practical effects that were augmented and supported with digital effects, a fantastic cast, and a wonderful script based on amazing source material.
Created 3 movies for $281m (Which is $488.1m in today's money)
And made $3B! three billion! at the box office ($5.2 Billion in today's money)
And each film in the trilogy made more money than the one that preceded it!
Totally unheard of today.
This also makes me wonder what is going on in Hollywood today and why they seem to be going out of their way to lose money at the box office.
Peter Jackson can make The Lord of the Rings trilogy for $488.1m
Disney spends $300m making Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny ?
Where does all this money go? It doesn't make sense to me.
I think that's for another Blog.
