Chapter 291: The Remarkable Box Office of The Lord of the Rings

The box office for The Lord of the Rings continued to rise steadily.

After two consecutive weeks of booming success, the audience numbers for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring saw a noticeable decline starting in the third week.

However, this "decline" was relative, as the film still grossed $51.4 million in North America.

Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes, a remake, surged into the second place on the North American box office chart with a strong $69.6 million opening.

But even so, in just three weeks, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring had already surpassed $200 million in North American box office earnings.

Not only did it break the record for the fastest $100 million gross, but it also shattered the record for the quickest to reach $200 million.

Shortly after, Martin left the United States and headed to China. During his stay, the Lord of the Rings crew wrapped up their North American promotional tour and split into two groups for overseas promotions.

Led by Peter Jackson, with Cate Blanchett, Viggo Mortensen, and Hugo Weaving, one group traveled to Australia and New Zealand. Another group, led by Ian McKellen, included Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd, and Liv Tyler, heading to Europe for promotions.

By the fourth week, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring saw a miraculous slight increase in box office numbers. With a $57.4 million gross, it managed to surpass Planet of the Apes ($40.2 million) and regained the top spot on the North American box office chart.

This remarkable box office turnaround had only been seen before with Titanic.

So, what was the reason for this rebound?

It was all due to a small marketing campaign initiated by Myers Productions online, which unexpectedly yielded huge results.

At the start of the third week of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring's run, a post appeared on the Yahoo forum:

"Who has watched The Lord of the Rings the most times? I've seen it three times, how about you?"

Under the post, the original poster shared pictures of three movie tickets from the film.

The post quickly sparked numerous responses:

"I've seen it four times.""Two times for me.""I've also watched it three times."

Each response included pictures of their movie tickets.

Some users were curious: "Why are you watching it so many times?"

The answers varied:

"Obviously, I'm watching it for Legolas!""I agree, I'm also watching for Legolas. If the VHS was out, I'd buy one just to replay it.""You women are crazy! I watched it twice, mainly for the epic battle scenes.""The special effects were magnificent, far surpassing Titanic."

In this mix of paid commenters and enthusiastic fans, even people who hadn't planned on watching the movie decided to buy tickets. Some just wanted to join the competition of who had watched it more times.

During this time, Hollywood had not yet fully embraced online marketing, but Myers Productions' novel approach to promotion caught the attention of many film companies, prompting them to begin training their marketing teams accordingly.

Martin wasn't concerned about others copying his methods. Ultimately, it was the quality of the film that mattered.

By the fourth week, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring's North American box office had reached $295.61 million, just shy of the $300 million mark.

In the fifth week, although the film's box office saw a slight decline, it still held onto second place on the box office chart.

With $38.23 million, the film's North American total officially surpassed $300 million, reaching $333.84 million, achieving the record for the fastest to reach $300 million.

In the sixth week, it grossed $27.24 million, bringing its cumulative total to $361.08 million.

Ten weeks later, the North American box office for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring had crossed the $400 million mark.

Globally, the film continued its sweeping success, claiming box office victory in countries like Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, and Australia. Even in New Zealand, the opening week gross exceeded $15 million.

Unlike Titanic, which had a slow but steady box office performance, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring started off with a bang, though it may not have had the same long-term stamina.

In fact, this was what movie studios liked most because the longer the film stayed in theaters, the less they earned from the box office cut—most of the money went to the theaters.

Titanic played for a full year, but after four months, 20th Century Fox's share of the box office was almost negligible, with the theaters making the most money.

However, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring's true potential lay not only in its box office earnings but in the sales of merchandise.

Within three months, the sales of Legolas action figures alone surpassed $400 million. Including other merchandise like Middle-earth costumes, elven cloaks, Legolas' bow and arrows, and the One Ring, the total sales had already exceeded $1 billion.

This was an astonishing rate of revenue generation.

In fact, for films like The Lord of the Rings, which were perfect for creating all kinds of merchandise, the box office was just a small part of the revenue.

Disney had a lot to say about this.

The box office revenue of animated films under Disney's umbrella accounted for only 24.6% of their total income, not even a quarter. The majority of the profits came from home video sales, TV rights, and merchandising.

Since 1998, Pixar's films had brought Disney a staggering $2.1 billion in profits.

Of course, Disney had to share this money with Steve Jobs, who owned Pixar.

Rumor had it that Disney was trying to acquire Pixar, but Disney CEO Michael Eisner and Pixar's Steve Jobs had recently been in a public dispute.

In February, Martin's new books Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Twilight: New Moon were published, once again causing a buying frenzy.

By March, the annual Oscars had arrived.

This year's ceremony was held at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California, with actress Whoopi Goldberg as the host.

Peter Jackson, full of hope, left the event disappointed.

Despite receiving 13 nominations, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring only won four technical awards: Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects, Best Makeup, and Best Original Score.

Martin, on the other hand, walked away with a small gold statue (Best Original Score).

A Beautiful Mind was the big winner, taking home the prestigious awards for Best Picture and Best Director.

Denzel Washington won Best Actor for Training Day.

Halle Berry won Best Actress for Monster's Ball.

(PS: You might want to check out this movie—don't worry too much about the plot, the focus is on Halle Berry's iconic performance.)

After the Oscars, during the post-party, Martin was pulled away by Charlize Theron, and they started discussing Monster's Ball.