Franchise
Middle-earth
6 films•2001–2014•New Line Cinema, Warner Bros.
80%average critics86%average audience$307.7Mdomestic average
Films
6
2001–2014
Domestic
$1.85B
lifetime
Worldwide
$5.83B
lifetime
Avg opening
$65.8M
3-day
Avg legs
4.84x
opening → total
Return
5.7x
on $1.02B of budget
The Middle-earth series runs to 6 films from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) to The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014), together grossing $1.85B domestic and $5.83B worldwide. The biggest hit is The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) at $1.12B worldwide; the biggest opening weekend belongs to The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) at $84.6M.
Filmography
| Film | Year | Opening | Domestic | Legs | Worldwide | CinemaScore | RT | Yearly rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | 2003 | $72.6M | $377.0M | 5.19x | $1.12B | A+ | 94% | #1 |
| The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers | 2002 | $62.0M | $340.0M | 5.48x | $923.0M | A | 95% | #2 |
| The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring | 2001 | $47.2M | $313.0M | 6.64x | $868.0M | A- | 91% | #2 |
| The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey | 2012 | $84.6M | $303.0M | 3.58x | $1.02B | A | 64% | #5 |
 The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug | 2013 | $73.6M | $258.0M | 3.51x | $958.0M | A- | 74% | #8 |
 The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies | 2014 | $54.7M | $255.1M | 4.66x | $940.3M | A | 59% | #6 |
Click any column to sort. Yearly rank is the film’s place on its release year’s domestic chart; a film outside that year’s top 50 shows a dash.
Film by film
DomesticInternationalColumn height is worldwide · one film every 2.6 years
Profitability
Return on Budget
5.7x
$5.83B worldwide on $1.02B of production budget
Theatrical breakeven point is approx. 2.5x production budget
Domestic vs International Split
Domestic $1.85BInternational $3.98B
Return by film · worldwide ÷ budget
0x2.5x breakeven11.9x
Budgets are reported production costs and exclude marketing, so this is a gross-to-budget ratio rather than studio profit. Films with no reported budget are left out of this section entirely, including from the totals, rather than counted as zero.
Records held
All records →#6Best multipliersThe Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers5.48x#8Best multipliersThe Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King5.19x#16Best multipliersThe Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies4.66x#40Biggest worldwide runsThe Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King$1.12B
4 placings across 2 all-time charts. Where a film places on the same chart in consecutive weekends, only its best placing is shown.
What’s next
Full schedule →No upcoming movies announced yet.
Connected
Directors
Counted from this filmography. The number is how many of these films each one accounts for.
