The Hollywood Reporter is already predicting that ROTK will possibly be the highest grossing film of all time, surpassing Titanic…that means OVER $1,000,000,000 for ROTK alone, not including the other two.
Next year, 5 years from now, 10 years from now, 50 years from now and longer…
Will the trilogy stand the test of time and rank up there with Gone With The Wind, Wizard Of Oz, Casablanca and Citizen Kane?
Or is this simply a generational blockbuster that will be a burp on the Hollywood gross list and fade like the Indiana Jones, Star Wars flavor of the decade?
(Please…no nitpicks or rants on the merits of the book vs film. I am talking about what your children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will think about this FILMED version of the trilogy in the future.)
Will this trilogy pass the test and be a classic for generations to come?
The big “weakness” of LOTR and most epics are that they are a lot of eye candy and not so much “philosophical”. Add to that the fact that the book itself is very sucessful… even a movie this good is “only” good because of the story. Like a good compliment to the book.
So is it a landmark film trilogy ? Yes.... will it be like Star Wars ? Almost... but no. Will it be a classic ? Mayhaps. It certainly marks the point in which hollywood is shown that GOOD stories HELP... that audiences are not to be treated like idiots. That directors that take risks are amply rewarded.
No way will ROTK beat Titanic. The first two films grossed around $300M each, but Titanic earned a hefty $600M. That record will stand for a long time. And besides, ROTK isn’t exactly a “chick flick”.
Are you sure you read the article correctly? I get the feeling they meant to predict a $1B gross for all three movies combined, which the trilogy will do quite easily.
Well, that depends on what you mean by “philosophical”, I guess. Personally, I think PJ did a fantastic job of making these movies more about the endurance of friendship, hope, the way self-doubt can hold back a great man, sacrificing oneself for a person/nation/idea that one loves, and quite a few other thematic elements than about “Ooh, check out the special effects!”
Then, are these three films no better than those regrettable cartoons from the late '70s and early '80s? I love Tolkien’s work, but there are plenty of elements that make a movie great besides the story. Certainly, Citizen Kane is the best example of this… is it considered (by some) to be the greatest film of all time simply because it was a good story? No. But, just MHO.
I’m not sure if I have an opinion about whether the LOTR trilogy will ever be listed along with films like Citizen Kane, the Godfather, or Casablanca. Still, I wouldn’t discount it out of hand simply becuase it’s a fantasy epic that’s based on a trilogy of books.
I remember reading the same thing on cnn.com — namely, that RotK might gross over [pinky to mouth] one billion dollars [/pinky to mouth] worldwide.
In order to beat Titanic it’d have to gross over $1.7B. Tricky, that.
I’m not sure if I’d consider the Indiana Jones trilogy to be a flash in the pan, considering the hat and jacket are in the Smithsonian and that “Indiana Jones” is a recognizable and iconic figure even to people who didn’t see the movies. In addition to this, the movies have aged well because they are done in a period style. “Indiana Jones” has entered the public lexicon in the same way that “Sherlock Holmes” has — lots of people say no shit, Sherlock who have never read “The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge.”
Similarly, the Star Wars movies have entered public consciousness to a startling degree. At a Dairy Queen I overheard a mother with two children; the children were playing with Star Wars action figures and talking about a video game. The kids seemed shocked to find out that the movies came first and the toys and books and games came later.
If you ask me, in twenty years The Lord of the Rings will have entered the public consciousness as well: it will no longer be a magical secret to know who Gandalf is, and many people will recognize the phrase “my precious.” Until now, these were secrets held only by the Tolkien elite; now they are in the minds of the masses.
In twenty years, the Titanic by White Star will once again be more iconic and famous than Titanic by James Cameron. I think because that film is historical, it is the history that will last. Ditto for Pearl Harbor, of course; ditto for JFK, ditto for The Babe and that Reagan biopic.
The phrase “I’m king of the world!” will live on but nobody will remember why. In twenty years, that line in Titanic will provoke a laugh because everyone will think it’s a parody of something.
[hijack] It never fails to astound me how people can look at a movie whose main characters are predominantly handsome men, and say that it’s not a chick-flick (i.e. women won’t want to go see it). At the first showing I went too, women outnumbered men at the theater.
http://boxofficemojo.com/alltime/world/
There is no way that ROTK will beat Titanic either domestically or worldwide. To do that it would have to roughly make what TTT and FOTR made combined.
However I think it will make a billion world wide and occupy the number 2 spot behind Titanic (this is without adjusting for inflation). I think it has a decent shot of beating Spiderman for the number 5 spot domestically.
About its place in popular culture I think it will equal Star Wars and eventually surpass it. For one thing the LOTR films are a lot better than Star Wars IMO. For another the original book is famous in its own right. And finally the marvellous EE DVD releases will help give the film a long life; it's unlikely the Star Wars original trilogy DVD's will be as good.
Another thing hampering the legacy of Star Wars is Lucas’ intent to NEVER EVER release the original, non-special-edition trilogy on DVD. Since the Special Editions contain utter crap, they will kill Star Wars’ legacy.
I’m pretty sure this is marketing bullshit. Lucas knows that no one’ll buy the Special Editions while they’re still waiting for the Originals to come out. Mark my words: within five years of the release of the Special Edition DVDs, he’ll release the originals, too. He may have forgotten how to make good movies, but he’s as canny a business man as ever.
I think it will surpass Titanic. The biggest thing going for it is the video and dvd sales and rentals of teh previous two films. For example my father would not go see FOT or TT but when He watched them with me he was hooked. He had to go see the third film just to , as he puts it, "see how the damed thing ends.
The big hype on this movie makes people curious. If I remember correctly the numbers for TT were greater that the first movie. This isn’t a case of the same people watching each of the films. More get picked up.
On top of that there is the fact that this is the end. You will hear some people lament that they will not see these characters again. After three years a certain fondness grows and to recapture the feelings there will be those who will see it multiple times, even those who normally only watch a movie once.
Also there are a hell of a lot of Women that loved this film. Unlike star wars you find a hell of a lot of couples seeing these films and that usualy means greater box office success. You see the woman can drag their men to see a film, even if the guy is not interested, it is hard for it to go the other way round.
I have a feeling that This film will have a decent set of legs and that is all that it requires to pass Titanic.
“If I remember correctly the numbers for TT were greater that the first movie. This isn’t a case of the same people watching each of the films. More get picked up.”
TTT earned less than 10% more than FOTR. Even if ROTK earns 20% more than TTT that will only get you to about 400 million. Titanic made 600 million. For all practical purposes it’s impossible. It would be amazing if ROTK reaches even 500 million.
In 20 years, I think Peter Jackson’s LOTR will be viewed as an impressive, but deeply flawed, rendition.
A “Tolkien elite” numbering in the tens, maybe hundreds, of millions. (Anyone know how many copies of the LOTR books have been sold? Google wasn’t my friend, for once.) Hell, Bored of the Rings, the Harvard Lampoon parody, sold ~750K copies when it was in print 30+ years ago. Never before has an ‘elite’ been so enormous.
I have to join in dismissing the notion that the LOTR movies are ‘guy flicks’ that women will stay away from. Half the women I know would see ROTK just to drool over Viggo one more time.
