The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrimhas broken a box office record for the Peter Jackson-produced movie franchise during its opening weekend. The new movie is the first animated feature in the Oscar-winningLord of the Ringsfranchise, which adapts the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and kicked off in 2001 with the first of theLOTRtrilogy and now includes theHobbitmovie trilogy as well as the upcomingThe Hunt for Gollum.Rohirrimtakes place nearly two centuries before the events ofLOTR, following the exploits of one of the kings of Rohan.
PerDeadline, as of Saturday morning, the Kenji Kamiyama-directedThe Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrimis projected to earn a 3-day opening weekend of $5 million, debuting at No. 5 at the domestic box office. This is a dramatic step down from the live-action installments in the Peter Jackson franchise, some of which rank among the highest-grossing movies of all time, earning it the lowest-grossing opening weekend of the entire Peter Jackson franchise.
The previous lowest debut wasThe Fellowship of the Ring’s $47.2 million, which still came in atmore than 9 times the debut of the new animated movie.
What This Means For The War Of The Rohirrim
The Lord Of The Rings Movie May Be Better Off Than It Seems
The only theatrically released Tolkien adaptation to have a worse opening than theWar of the Rohirrimreleaseis the 1978 Ralph Bakshi movieThe Lord of the Rings, which debuted with a scant $626,000. However, the movie only opened in 31 theaters compared toRohirrim’s roughly 2,500. It eventually earned $32.6 million, which makes it the lowest-grossing installment in the franchise, even when adjusted for inflation, butthat total still made it a financial success considering its slim $4 million budget.
Adjusted for inflation, 1978’sThe Lord of the Ringsearned roughly $154.5 million, which still comes in far below the lowest-grossing Jackson movie, which isThe Fellowship of the Ringat $868.4 million.
WhileThe War of the Rohirrimcost significantly more than the 1978 title at roughly $30 million, that is a slim total for a modern animated feature and means thatit likely only needs to earn $75 million to break evenin theaters. While this may be outside of its capabilities, given this disappointing debut, holiday season animated releases have a tendency to be slow-and-steady performers. Previous examples include 2023’sMigration, which opened to just $12.4 million but eventually grossed $299.8 million worldwide.
Our Take On The War Of The Rohirrim Opening Weekend
The Movie Still Has An Uphill Battle
While it could become a success, the new animated movie still has several road blocks ahead of it. For one thing,the slow-and-steady holiday season animated movies tend to be family fare.Migrationwas much more oriented to young audiences than the Tolkien adaptation, which is rated PG-13 and comes with a hefty 2 hour and 14 minute run time. The same is true of slow-burn animated releases outside of the holiday frame, such as Pixar’sElemental, which premiered in June 2023.
Elementaldebuted with $29.6 million and eventually earned $496.4 million worldwide.
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrimreviewshave also been lukewarm, earning it a 51% Rotten Tomatoes score, which could indicate that it won’t earn much of a word-of-mouth boost. This makes itthe worst-reviewed outing in the Peter Jackson franchiseand the second-worstLOTRadaptation overall, as the 1978 movie earned a 49% score.
Will The War Of The Rohirrim Affect Future Lord Of The Rings Movies?
Its Underperformance Might Be A Blip
What the opening weekend ofThe War of the Rohirrimhas ultimately proven is thatnot every project attached to theLord of the Ringstitle will become an instant critical and commercial success. This has been borne out in a slightly smaller way by thePrime Video prequel showThe Rings of Power, which earned a 38% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes in season 1. However, both seasons have Fresh scores from critics and season 2 has an improved 60% audience score in addition to the show being one of the Top 5 most-watched series on the platform.
Rohirrimis something of an outlier [for the franchise]…
AlthoughThe Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrimis the first major box office stumble for the Peter Jackson franchise, this does not necessarily indicate that theupcomingThe Hunt for Gollumwill suffer in the same way.Rohirrimis something of an outlier as both an anime property and a prequel lacking conspicuous overlapping characters with the flagship branch of the franchise. The 2026 live-action movie lacks both of those demerits, and its timeline placing it alongsideFellowship of the Ringwill likely fuel major nostalgia for ticketbuyers and boost its prospects considerably.
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim
Cast
Set before the events of the original Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is an animated action-adventure fantasy film that follows a King of Rohan named Helm Hammerhand. When his home comes under siege by Dunlendings, Hammerhand prepares himself and his allies to fight back against them, with the war leading to the eventual establishment of Helm’s Deep.
