The Lord of the Rings Trilogy: A Hollywood Miracle for One Major Reason

The Lord of the Rings film trilogy is iconic today, but at the time it was made, it was a major gamble for the studios and filmmakers involved. In hindsight, it seems incredible that these three movies were produced all at once and shot back to back, without any opportunity for the studio to back out or cut them off early. Thankfully, they were successful, leading to an exceptionally great return on investment for New Line Cinema, since the filming process was all packed into one production. In the years since, a big risk like this has become even more improbable, yet maybe it’s the kind of risky move Hollywood needs to discover the next Lord of the Rings.

The Lord of the Rings is often credited with inspiring the generation of filmmakers, artists, critics, and enthusiasts that were growing up around the time of its release. This series maximized the use of DVD special features while they were most relevant, with behind-the-scenes featurettes that stretched into full-on documentaries in some cases. Through these, many fans are intimately familiar with the unique challenges of this shoot, which took place over 13 consecutive months in 1999 and 2000.

For some of us, it would take years to acquire the context to understand how rare a three-film commitment was — especially in a high-budget genre like epic fantasy. After poring over all the material about how arduous this shoot was, it’s awe-inspiring to step back and realize that it was also a great privilege for the filmmakers, cast, and crew. This back-to-back filming method is also credited with enhancing the movies’ sense of continuity and immersion, yet it could have easily been a detriment as well. The cast and crew were constantly exhausted, yet they never phoned it in.

This all comes together for one of the most exciting behind-the-scenes takes in Hollywood history. The trilogy was miraculously greenlit all at once, and allowed to film back to back, then the set was miraculously filled with immensely talented and tireless people. Somehow, it all came together in three great movies, but even that doesn’t guarantee great ticket sales and commercial success. Yet another miracle persuaded people to buy tickets and show up to theaters to make this series the powerhouse it is today.

Peter Jackson’s Uncompromising Pitch

Persuading a studio to finance any movie at all is an immense challenge for a filmmaker, and it always comes with some compromises. Director Peter Jackson somehow beat those odds and secured a deal most directors would die for, all with very little mainstream blockbuster experience. At that point, his reputation rested on six feature films and one Oscar nomination.

Jackson and Fran Walsh — his life partner and creative collaborator — became interested in making a fantasy film after completing The Frighteners in 1995. In a 2002 CBS News interview, Jackson explained that they were dissatisfied with all their ideas because they felt like imitations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, so they decided to look into the film rights for the novels. Jackson got in contact with Miramax’s Harvey Weinstein, who acquired the film rights and began working with Jackson on an adaptation.

Jackson and Walsh were hoping to create three films — the first one covering The Hobbit, and the second two covering all three volumes of Lord of the Rings. However, Weinstein was unable to secure the rights to The Hobbit, leaving only Frodo’s journey. Additionally, Weinstein pushed Jackson to cut the series down, eventually asking for all three books to be covered in one two-hour movie.

Jackson recalled that when he pushed back, Weinstein threatened to replace him and give the project to a different director, but he believed this was an empty threat. He called Weinstein’s bluff and eventually Miramax let the whole project go into turnaround so that it could move to a different studio.

Jackson and Walsh found the collaborator they were looking for at New Line Cinema. The two-film plan they were developing was immediately expanded into a full-on trilogy, and the potential success of this project was taken much more seriously. The Lord of the Rings may have been a half-century old at the time, with no successful screen adaptation up to that point, but it was still one of the best-selling books of all time, with die-hard fans around the world. Its impact on the entire fantasy genre gave it more weight than Weinstein had realized.

An Ambitious Production

After convincing a studio to finance the whole thing, the hard work itself began. Even in the writing process, there were some near-misses that could have drastically changed the success of these movies — the screenwriters considered including the book character Tom Bombadil, for example, and planned on filming an explicit sex scene between Arwen and Aragorn that would have messed with the movie’s wide appeal.

The pre-production process was also more involved than an average film, and was complicated in a way by Jackson’s insistence on doing everything in New Zealand. At the time, set and costume designers heard “fantasy” and immediately thought of works like Labyrinth, Dark Crystal, and Willow. Jackson pushed them all to take more inspiration from medieval historical dramas — particularly Braveheart. This balance of practical realism with magical elements fit well with Tolkien’s writing approach.

The filming itself is the stuff of legend. The production moved all over New Zealand, filming largely in national parks and nature conservation areas, as well as two huge soundstages. There were seven units shooting, plus a team working on miniature photography the entire time. Although the whole trilogy was shot back to back, pick-up shoots were conducted each year between 2001 and 2003 to fill in missing moments or fine-tune the spectacle.

This was not just an exceptionally long shoot, either — many of these days involved unique stunts and action, as well as some groundbreaking new filming techniques. These are the movies that popularized motion capture for CGI, and the finer points of that process were developed on this set.

Finally, post-production was another historic undertaking. Each movie got at least a full year of editing and digital artwork, with Jackson reluctant to relinquish any of this responsibility to his team. Contractually, Jackson shared final cut authority with New Line CEO Robert Shaye, but Shaye never forced any changes to Jackson’s finished products.

Release

After all that, it was entirely possible that movie fans would scoff at The Lord of the Rings and this theatrical behemoth would flop. This was a time before social media had made games like Dungeons & Dragons more mainstream, and the epic fantasy genre was more niche in general. Reading itself was considered to be in decline, and those who did read for pleasure struggled with the outdated language and pacing of Tolkien’s books. For those that wanted fantasy, the newly released Harry Potter series was right there, and much easier to comprehend.

Audiences may have been primed for The Lord of the Rings in part by the enthusiastic response of critics. A 24-minute preview of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was screened at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, and it was an instant sensation. The response was so great that New Line immediately increased the budget on the whole project, funding some of the pick-up shots, editing time, and special effects. This influx of cash may even be partially responsible for the extensive bonus material on the DVD releases later.

The Fellowship of the Ring was shot with a $60-million budget, which was later raised to $93 million. It earned over $888 million at the box office. Both The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King had $94-million budgets. The second movie earned over $938 million at the box office, while the finale earned a staggering $1.1 billion. The whole trilogy together cost New Line $281 million to make, yet brought in just under $3 billion at the global box office — all before accounting for home release, merchandising and other revenue streams.

Meanwhile, the critical and popular response to these movies simply can’t be overstated. They couldn’t be contained by geek culture and have become emblematic of 21st century movies in general. There’s no discussion of great sequels, great trilogies, or great fantasy screen adaptations without these movies, and some of the most popular productions coming out today are trying to mimic The Lord of the Rings‘ success.

The number of things that needed to come together for this trilogy is staggering, and these days, it feels even more out of reach for a studio to take all these risks. The Lord of the Rings trilogy is streaming now on Max — both the theatrical cuts and the extended editions. Much of the bonus content referenced above has been excluded from later re-releases on Blu-ray and DVD, so to find it all you’ll need to look carefully at the contents of the copy you’re purchasing.

2025-03-17 04:14

Peter Jackson’s Uncompromising Pitch

An Ambitious Production

Release

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