War Of The Rohirrim Continuing Lord Of The Rings’ Box Office Streak Is Even More Important Now

The importance of The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim‘s box office success has become even more vital for the franchise. Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings adaptations of The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King were all critical and commercial hits following their respective releases from 2001-2003. This included the movies becoming one of the most lucrative and highest-grossing series in cinematic history. While not as acclaimed, The Hobbit movie trilogy proved to be a box office success as well.

A decade after the theatrical debut of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, the upcoming release of The War of the Rohirrim marks several firsts for the franchise. Instead of being live-action like The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, The War of the Rohirrim is an anime movie. It also is not a direct adaptation of a J.R.R. Tolkien book but is instead based on the appendices he wrote, and will include additional story elements not found in the author’s previous work. These changes are intriguing, but could prove challenging at the box office.

War Of The Rohirrim Faces A Challenge Continuing Lord Of The Rings’ Box Office Streak

The Previous Movies Set An Incredibly High Bar

The War of the Rohirrim will have a difficult time continuing the franchise’s stellar box office streak. The Fellowship of the Ring grossed $868.4 million worldwide (via Box Office Mojo) during its initial theatrical run and has since gone on to reach a total of $894.3 million worldwide thanks to theatrical releases (via The Numbers). This would be an impressive feat by any standard that is further elevated by the move being made on a production budget of $93 million.

All The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies that followed surpassed Fellowship‘s gross, including The Return of the King and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey earning over $1 billion worldwide. Making between $894 million and more than 1 billion is a tall order for The War of the Rohirrim. An anime movie is unlikely to have the same widespread appeal as the live-action Lord of the Rings movies, especially since the box office juggernauts Wicked, Gladiator II, and Moana 2 will all still be in theaters, and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 will only debut a week later.

War Of The Rohirrim’s Success Is More Important With The Hunt For Gollum Coming

War Of The Rohirrim Will Impact Expectations For The Hunt For Gollum

Now that The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum has been announced and is slated for a 2026 release, there is even more pressure on The War of the Rohirrim‘s box office results. Prior to The Hunt for Gollum, The War of the Rohirrim needs to prove that a Lord of the Rings movie can still do well at the box office a decade after the release of the franchise’s last theatrical installment. The anime movie is meant to be the beginning of many new Lord of the Rings projects distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.

Confidence in The Hunt for Gollum will wane if The War of the Rohirrim is unable to meet box office expectations. This would not only be because The Hunt for Gollum is the franchise’s next movie, but because they are taking a similar creative approach. Both The War of the Rohirrim and The Hunt for Gollum are not direct adaptations and instead are pulling specific pieces of information from Tolkien’s appendices and other Middle-earth writings to tell their stories. Poor box office results would indicate that this creative approach may not be viable.

The Next 2 LOTR Movies Could Determine The Future Of The Franchise

More Movies Will Only Happen If War Of The Rohirrim And The Hunt For Gollum Are Financially Successful

The War of the Rohirrim and The Hunt for Gollum will prove whether The Lord of the Rings franchise has a future in theaters. Gandalf actor Ian McKellen has already been brought back to reprise his role in two upcoming Lord of the Rings movies, only one of which is The Hunt for Gollum. However, the second movie is unlikely to move forward at Warner Bros. if The War of the Rohirrim and The Hunt for Gollum do not fare well at the box office, and any other future movie plans could be scrapped as well.

The Hunt for Gollum
will be directed by Andy Serkis.

On the other hand, high box office earnings could mean even more Lord of the Rings movies being developed. Both The War of the Rohirrim and The Hunt for Gollum being financially successful would indicate that there is a future for the franchise to make more movies in animation and in live-action. It could even lead to an animated television series or a live-action series that is different from Prime Video’s The Rings of Power. The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim‘s box office will dictate many of the franchise’s future business and creative decisions.

Source: Box Office Mojo, The Numbers