Nearly 25 years ago, Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy dominated theaters as audiences got to witness the Fellowship's journey across Middle-Earth to destroy the One Ring and end Sauron's threat. The trilogy is now set to return to theaters in 2024 and give audiences the chance to relive the magic or even experience for the first time if they didn't get to the first time around.
It was announced Thursday that Warner Bros. would be bringing the Peter Jackson-directed trilogy back to theaters for one weekend in June, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Warner Bros. will be partnering with Fathom Events to bring the films back to theaters starting with The Fellowship of the Ring on June 9, The Two Towers on June 10, and finally The Return of the King on June 11.
Rather than the original theatrical cuts, Fathom and Warner will be playing all three extended cuts which totals to around an 11 hour and 20 minute runtime. The films will also be remastered for the special screenings to benefit from modern theater formats.
The trilogy won't just be the only time audiences will get the chance to revisit Middle-Earth in 2024, either, as season two of Amazon Prime's The Lord of the Rings series The Rings of Power is expected to premiere later in the year. In addition, the anime prequel film The War of the Rohirrim centered on the story of Helm Hammerhand and starring Miranda Otto is scheduled to release on December 13.
There and Back Again
At the time of their releases between 2001 and 2003, The Lord of the Rings trilogy was met with wide critical acclaim that was reflected in 17 Academy Award wins including Best Picture and Best Director for The Return of the King. The trilogy also saw plenty of success at the box office with a lifetime total of $2.988 billion against a reported budget of around $280 million.
The films were considered one of the most ambitious projects for a studio to undertake as JRR Tolkien's fantasy novels were widely considered un-adaptable to film before then. In additions, there were questions about how capable a director Jackson was at the time as he was coming off 1996's The Frighteners and he only had a handful of other credits to his name such as 1992's horror-comedy cult hit Braindead.
Production would largely take place in New Zealand between October 1999 and December 2000, with all three films shot simultaneously during that time in what was considered an unprecedented scope at the time. Various pickups and reshoots would be done between 2001 and 2003 for all three films to bring its total production time to around five years.
Jackson would revisit Middle-Earth in 2011 when production for The Hobbit trilogy began back in New Zealand after a long and tumultuous process that involved various issues including industry disputes in New Zealand and Guillermo Del Toro leaving the project after being tapped to direct, forcing Jackson to step in. While The Hobbit trilogy was not as popular with critics or audiences as The Lord of the Rings, the prequel films were still a success at the time of each entry's release.
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