Lotr two towers boc office mojo
"Titanic" sailed off with an astounding 11 Oscars in all in 1998, then tying the record for most Academy Awards won by a single movie with "Ben-Hur. The last of the Tolkien trilogy garnered a leading 11 Oscar nominations last month, including bids for best picture and best director. Like "Titanic" before it, "Return of the King" has benefited from a bevy of Academy Award nominations. The three films were all shot together in New Zealand for about $100 million each. The first film in the series, "The Fellowship of the Ring," ended up with $865 million worldwide after its 2001 release, while "The Two Towers pulled in $921 million a year later. "The holding power and longevity at the box office I think is a real testament to the artistry and vision of Peter Jackson and his cast and crew," said Rolf Mittweg, president of worldwide marketing and distribution for New Line, a unit of Time Warner Inc which also owns CNN.com.Īll three Rings films have now racked up combined receipts totaling nearly $2.8 billion globally. 10 at the North American box office this past weekend, grossing $2.85 million Friday through Sunday, New Line said. The epic tale of hobbits, elves, wizards and orcs was still No. More than $361 million of that sum was generated at U.S. All three won the Hugo Award for Best (Long-form) Dramatic Presentation in their respective years. Through Sunday, "Return of the King" had accumulated a worldwide total of $1,005,380,412 in ticket sales, New Line said. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was released on December 19 2001, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers on Decemand The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King worldwide on December 17 2003. Tolkien, now ranks as the second-highest-grossing film of all time after the 1997 sea-going romance "Titanic," which cruised to $1.8 billion in global receipts.īut "Return of the King" crossed the 10-figure threshold in less time, getting there in fewer than 10 weeks from its December 17 opening, compared with the "Titanic," which hit the billion-dollar mark as it entered its 11th week of release. The conclusion to director Peter Jackson's fantasy trilogy, based on the books of J.R.R. Shakespeare in Love (beat Saving Private Ryan)Ī Beautiful Mind (beat The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring)Ĭhicago (beat The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers)Īnd guess which film, with a current box-office gross of $61.3 million, is in second place among this year’s nominees? No Country for Old Men, that’s which one.LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) - "Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," has become the second movie ever to break the $1 billion box-office mark worldwide, distributor New Line Cinema reported Monday. Eight of the past fifteen Best Picture winners were the second-most successful of all nominees: Unforgiven (beat A Few Good Men) So that bodes well for Juno, right? Nope! Because it turns out the place to be is second place. On the other hand, of the past fifteen Best Picture winners, five have been the box-office champ among the nominees on the date of the awards: Forrest Gump, Titanic, Gladiator, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, and The Departed. Sorry, There Will Be Blood and your $32 million gross! Certainly being the worst earner of the five nominees will kill you none of the past fifteen Best Pictures were in last place in the box-office race on Oscar night. The answer? It doesn’t hurt, but it doesn’t help as much as you’d think. The Academy loves hits!īut does it? We’re not exactly gurus, but we do have a subscription to Box Office Mojo, so we went through the past fifteen years of Best Picture nominees to answer the question: How much does a film’s box office affect its chances in the Best Picture race? That is, if you’re the Best Pic nominee whose box office is the highest at the time of the awards, does that give you a better chance to win? But the piece of evidence everyone continually repeats in making the case that Juno might beat No Country for Old Men: Juno is the only one of the nominees that’s a box-office hit, with $125.5 million earned so far. Those Oscar bloggers and commentators who have given Juno a shot in this year’s Best Picture race make a number of different cases: that feel-bad movies like There Will Be Blood and No Country might split the vote, letting Juno in as a feel-good dark horse that the Academy likes a movie whose message is tidy and neat that the guilds no longer represent the whims of the Academy.
Photos: iStockphoto, Fox Searchlight, AMPAS