War of the Rohirrim, the final installment in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings film series, failed to break box office records on its opening weekend.
The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim is the first animated film of the award-winning Lord of the Rings series, which was adapted from the works of JRR Tolkien and whose first film was released in 2001. The War of the Rohirrim takes place nearly two centuries before the main trilogy and tells the adventures of one of the kings of Rohan.
The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim Was Disappointing
According to Deadline, The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim, directed by Kenji Kamiyama, is expected to gross $5 million in its three-day opening weekend.
This figure represents a huge drop compared to the live-action Lord of the Rings films, all of which are among the highest-grossing films of all time. The previous lowest opening in the series belonged to The Fellowship of the Ring with $47.2 million. Even this figure is more than 9 times the gross of the new animated movie.
The box office performance of The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim proved that not every project bearing the Lord of the Rings name will be an instant critical and commercial success. However, this does not mean that the live-action movie Gollum Hunting, which will be released in 2026, will suffer the same fate.
War of the Rohirrim is an exception in that it is both an anime feature and a prequel story devoid of notable tie-in characters to the flagship series. It can be predicted that future Tolkien adaptations will be more lively and promising.