Thursday, February 26, 2004
The Return is a billionaire
Just read that the final episode of LOTR -- the Return of the King -- has now officially crossed the billion dollar mark internationally in box-office take. In doing so, ROTK became the second movie, after that other one about a sinking ship that didn't have hyperdrive, to cross the billion dollar figure. CNN has more.
The conclusion to director Peter Jackson's fantasy trilogy, based on the books of J.R.R. 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. But "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. Through Sunday, "Return of the King" had accumulated a worldwide total of $1,005,380,412 in ticket sales, New Line said.
All three Rings films have now racked up combined receipts totaling nearly $2.8 billion globally. 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 three films were all shot together in New Zealand for about $100 million each.
Now on to Sunday, when hopefully, ROTK will sweep the Oscars. And perhaps on Monday, I will finally get to see it :)
The conclusion to director Peter Jackson's fantasy trilogy, based on the books of J.R.R. 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. But "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. Through Sunday, "Return of the King" had accumulated a worldwide total of $1,005,380,412 in ticket sales, New Line said.
All three Rings films have now racked up combined receipts totaling nearly $2.8 billion globally. 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 three films were all shot together in New Zealand for about $100 million each.
Now on to Sunday, when hopefully, ROTK will sweep the Oscars. And perhaps on Monday, I will finally get to see it :)
