The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, an animated venture by Warner Bros., opened to a lackluster $4.6 million at the domestic box office this weekend, bringing its global total to $10.3 million. The film, set 183 years before the events of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, debuted across 2,602 screens with a per-screen average of $1,768.
The film’s performance falls far short of the previous live-action entries in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit series, which saw opening weekends ranging from The Fellowship of the Ring at $47 million to The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey at $84 million. Following a paltry international launch last week with $1.79 million from 31 markets, the animated feature has continued to struggle captivating audiences on a similar scale.
Critically, War of the Rohirrim received mixed reviews, holding a 51% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 5.1 User Score out of 10 on Metacritic.
The film’s daily earnings over the opening weekend were as follows: $2 million on Friday, $1.47 million on Saturday, and $1.1 million on Sunday.
The narrative, focusing on a much earlier period in Middle-earth’s history, and the choice of anime-style animation, contributed to its niche appeal, not resonating as broadly as hoped. Even among anime releases this year, War of the Rohirrim does not lead, with February’s Demon Slayer: To the Hashira Training having a stronger debut with $11.5 million. War of the Rohirrim also failed to crack the Top 10 Highest Grossing Anime films with Pokemon 3 the Movie, another Warner Bros release, occupying 10th place which opened domestically with $8.2 million and grossed $17 million during its box office run.
Internationally, the film added $4 million from 72 territories with the UK, Germany, and France being the top markets. However, its global performance suggests it will not surpass the domestic earnings of the 1978 animated The Lord of the Rings film, from director Ralph Backshi, which grossed $30.4 million during its box office run.
Speculation leading up to The War of the Rohirrim’s release and the strong possibility of a weak performance at the box office included factors such as it being an anime, red flags such as Héra being the main character rather than Helm Hammerhand which the story is about, Héra being another girlboss-type character, a heavy reliance of LOTR member berries, the animation itself, The Lord of the Rings being a damaged brand, and a failure to attract both Tolkien fans and the general audience. Not to mention stiff competition from movies such as Moana 2 and Wicked with Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Mufasa: The Lion King set to dominate the rest of December making it impossible for The War of the Rohirrim to gain any traction at the box office.
Just remember, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is not about Helm Hammerhand, it’s about Héra.#WaroftheRohirrim #LordOfTheRings #LOTR #Tolkien https://t.co/j0DZBatg6B pic.twitter.com/gk6gG1Tzue
— Sean D Knight (@SeanDKnight) December 11, 2024
The War of the Rohirrim allegedly cost $30 million to make and was rushed by Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema to help maintain the company’s rights to the Middle-earth movie franchise. While Rohirrim is the worst-performing Lord of the Rings movie in the Peter Jackson franchise when it comes to opening weekends, it is not the worst overall as the 1978 The Lord of the Rings animated film had a domestic opening of $626,649. However, the 1978 film was able to amass $30.4 million during its box office run while War of the Rohirrim looks as if it will struggle to hit $20 million.
As it stands, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is the weakest addition to the Peter Jackson Middle-earth saga and another debilitating blow to the overall Lord of the Rings brand which, just ten years ago, was one of the most lucrative ones.
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