The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King backdrop
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King movie poster

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

2003 PG-13 3h 21m Adventure, Drama, Fantasy New Line Cinema

The eye of the enemy is moving.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Box Office

Opening Weekend
$72.6M
3-day opening
Domestic Total
$377M
Final
Worldwide Total
$1.12B
$742M international
Domestic Legs5.19x
Budget$94.0M
2003 Rank#1
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Box office performance
Weekend Rank Gross Chg Total Theaters Average Wks
Dec 19-21 1 $72.63M $124.10M 3,703 $19.6K 1
Dec 26-28 1 $50.60M -30.3% $222.27M 3,703 $13.7K 2
Jan 2-4 1 $28.18M -44.3% $290.41M 3,703 $7.6K 3
Jan 9-11 1 $14.21M -49.6% $312.32M 3,532 $4.0K 4
Jan 16-18 3 $10.22M -28.1% $326.81M 3,003 $3.4K 5
Jan 23-25 5 $6.79M -33.6% $337.82M 2,558 $2.7K 6
Jan 30-Feb 1 4 $5.31M -21.7% $345.33M 2,256 $2.4K 7
Feb 6-8 7 $4.29M -19.2% $351.13M 1,878 $2.3K 8
Feb 13-15 8 $4.19M -2.5% $356.46M 1,663 $2.5K 9
Feb 20-22 10 $2.85M -31.9% $361.12M 1,407 $2.0K 10
Feb 27-29 11 $2.17M -23.7% $364.12M 1,112 $2.0K 11
Mar 5-7 7 $3.04M +39.7% $368.21M 1,903 $1.6K 12
Mar 12-14 9 $2.02M -33.5% $371.15M 1,307 $1.5K 13
Mar 19-21 11 $1.35M -33.2% $373.36M 1,021 $1.3K 14
Mar 26-28 15 $706K -47.7% $374.56M 661 $1.1K 15
Apr 2-4 19 $374K -47.0% $375.20M 348 $1.1K 16
Apr 9-11 21 $289K -22.6% $375.67M 338 $855 17
Apr 16-18 28 $227K -21.4% $376.06M 295 $770 18
Apr 23-25 27 $195K -14.3% $376.34M 268 $726 19
Apr 30-May 2 35 $155K -20.6% $376.56M 221 $699 20
May 7-9 38 $104K -32.9% $376.72M 190 $545 21
May 14-16 40 $93K -10.7% $376.85M 153 $605 22
May 21-23 44 $72K -22.0% $376.96M 135 $534 23

Performance Charts

Charts show the first 10 weeks · see the tables above for the full run

Daily Gross

Cumulative Total

Weekend Gross Trend

Theater Count

Profitability

Return on Budget
Theatrical breakeven point is approx. 2.5x production budget

Domestic vs International Split

Week-over-Week Drop

Weekly Gross Decline (%)

Cast & Crew

Directed byPeter Jackson
ScreenplayPeter Jackson, Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens
StarringElijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Andy Serkis, Dominic Monaghan
StudioNew Line Cinema

Similar Movies

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers 2002 · Jackson $340M The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring 2001 · Jackson $313M King Kong 2005 · Jackson $218M The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey 2012 · Jackson $303M The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug 2013 · Jackson $258M

Box Office Comparisons

Complete Trilogy The Lord of the Rings Three Decembers, three marathons — Return of the King finishes on top.
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