Franchise
Middle-earthFollow
6 films•2001–2014•New Line Cinema, Warner Bros.
Avg critics80%
Avg audience86%
Avg domestic$312.5M
Domestic
$1.88B
Lifetime
Worldwide
$5.87B
Lifetime
Avg opening
$65.8M
3-day
Filmography
| Film | Year | Opening | Domestic | Legs | Worldwide | CinemaScore | RT | Yearly rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | 2003 | $72.6M | $383.4M | 5.28x | $1.13B | A+ | 94% | #1 |
| The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers | 2002 | $62.0M | $349.7M | 5.64x | $926.8M | A | 95% | #2 |
| The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring | 2001 | $47.2M | $325.7M | 6.64x | $902.0M | A- | 91% | #2 |
| The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey | 2012 | $84.6M | $303.0M | 3.58x | $1.01B | A | 64% | #5 |
 The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug | 2013 | $73.6M | $258.2M | 3.51x | $959.4M | A- | 74% | #8 |
 The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies | 2014 | $54.7M | $255.1M | 4.66x | $940.3M | A | 59% | #6 |
Click any column to sort. Yearly rank is the film’s place on its release year’s domestic chart; a film outside that year’s top 50 shows a dash.
Film by film
0$500M$1B
DomesticInternationalColumn height is worldwide · one film every 2.6 years
Profitability
Return on budget
5.7x
$5.87B worldwide on $1.02B of production budget
Theatrical breakeven point is approx. 2.5x production budget
Domestic vs international split
Domestic $1.88BInternational $3.99B
Return by film
Worldwide ÷ budget0x2.5x breakeven12.0x
Budgets are reported production costs and exclude marketing, so this is a gross-to-budget ratio rather than studio profit. Films with no reported budget, and streaming releases with no real theatrical run, are left out of this section entirely, including from the totals, rather than counted as zero.
Records held
All records#4Best second-weekend holds ($50M+ openers)The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers−21.2%#6Best multipliersThe Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers5.64x#7Biggest Christmas openingsThe Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring$47.2M#7Best second-weekend holds ($50M+ openers)The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies−25.2%#8Biggest December openingsThe Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey$84.6M#9Best multipliersThe Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King5.19x#11Biggest December openingsThe Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug$73.6M#12Biggest December openingsThe Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King$72.6M#17Best multipliersThe Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies4.66x#17Biggest December openingsThe Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers$62.0M
Top 10 of 13 placings across 5 all-time charts. Where a film places on the same chart in consecutive weekends, only its best placing is shown.
What’s next
Full scheduleNo upcoming movies announced yet.
Connected
Directors
Counted from this filmography. The number is how many of these films each one accounts for.
