While Lord of the Rings fans are waiting for the next installment in the franchise — the Andy Serkis-directed The Hunt for Gollum in December 2027 — they returned to cinemas this weekend to see Peter Jackson’s 25th anniversary of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) as well as its two sequels, The Two Towers from 2002 and Return of the King from 2003.
Combined, the entire re-issue of the New Line trilogy via Fathom Entertainment did $9 million at the domestic box office this frame, with another $1.5M from offshore markets for a combined global weekend of $10.5M.
Broken out, Fellowship of the Rings did $3.85M over four days, while Two Towers did $2.64M (it began showtimes Saturday) and Return of the King made $2.5M since Sunday.
Originally only booked for two weekends — January 16-18 and January 23-25 — each title was to play on a particular day, e.g., The Fellowship of the Ring on Friday, The Two Towers on Saturday, and The Return of the King on Sunday. But by fan demand, movie chains added additional days, locations and marathons.
In honor of the 25th anniversary of the theatrical release, Jackson recorded never-before-seen intros for each title in the trilogy. AMC, Regal and select circuits were selling limited popcorn-branded popcorn buckets to celebrate live-action screen takes of the J.R.R. Tolkien novels.
Fathom and Warner Bros’ New Line previously teamed in 2024 on a theatrical rerelease of the trilogy and grossed $8.2M at the domestic box office over three weekends.
The multi-Oscar-winning team behind the blockbuster The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies — Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens — is reuniting to produce two new films from Tolkien’s Middle-earth for Warner Bros and New Line Cinema. Zane Weiner is also producing.
The lifetime cume for the entire Lord of the Rings and Hobbit live-action movies through six titles counts north of $5.9 billion at the global box office.
Walsh and Boyens are writing the screenplay for Hunt for Gollum, along with Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou. Ian McKellen announced he was coming back as Gandalf, Serkis (natch) as Gollum, and Elijah Wood as Frodo.
Blurb for Hunt for Gollum: The pic explores Aragorn’s adventures as a ranger, specifically his quest to capture Gollum between The Hobbit and Fellowship of the Ring, tracking him to keep the Ring’s location from Sauron.
Cameras are expected to roll in May. The Hunt for Gollum opens on December 17, 2027.