'The Lord Of The Rings: The War Of The Rohirrim' Bombs In Its International Box Office Debut
Warner Bros.’ upcoming The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim animated film bombed in its release at various international box offices only bringing in a total of $2 million.
According to Variety’s Rebecca Rubin, the film debuted in 3,410 theaters in 31 different countries but was only able to garner just a total of $2 million.
The highest performing locations were Spain with $347,000, Mexico with $239,000, and Thailand with $146,000.
It’s the latest piece of bad news for the film. Shawn Robbins at Box Office Theory significantly downgraded the film’s domestic box office expectations in his latest forecast update on December 5th.
Robbins had originally predicted the film would gross between $15 million and $24 million in its opening weekend. He specifically predicted the film will only gross $17.5 million.
As for its total domestic box office haul, Robbins believeed it would bring in between $44 million and $84.5 million. He specifically noted it would do just $49.5 million.
He explained at the time, “the anime approach with this prequel is likely to hinder what is usually a broader audience appeal for the Lord of the Rings franchise.”
However, he adds, “Still, the medium has proven strong even with lesser known titles in the domestic market, so Rings could attract some attention here as a counter-player perhaps not dissimilar to how Godzilla Minus One aided the market late last year.”
Now, Robbins downgraded his opening weekend predictions 43%. He now predicts the film will only gross between $8 million and $13 million. Specifically he claimed it would do $10 million.
As for the film’s total domestic run, he also downgraded those 47%. He now predicts it will only bring in between $23.5 million and $37 million. And he specifically predicted it will do just $26 million.
As for why, he explained, “Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is slower out of the gate in its early pre-sale modeling than projected. The pre-existing Tolkien fan base would normally be expected to generate noticeable upfront demand, but the anime nature of this film could also skew the typical demographics for the previously live-action-based franchise.”
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It’s also likely that the Tolkien fan base is not interested in the film’s feminist messaging, which it has made apparent in its marketing by making the unnamed daughter of Helm Hammerhand the protagonist of the film rather than Helm Hammerhand.
Producer Philippa Boyens attempted to justify making the unnamed daughter of Hammerhand the main protagonist in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, “In the appendices where the story is drawn from, we get these quite interestingly drawn male characters, and then we get this young female character who is never named — and that was really interesting to me.”
“We know Helm has a daughter, and we know that she was central to the conflict that happened. But myself, and especially screenwriter Phoebe Gittins, were drawn to her,” she said. “We could feel the weight of being that unnamed daughter, which immediately piqued our interest: Who was she? How did she live?”
There is also a report that Hera “communes with the Great Eagles" and that she calls “on the power of a seemingly long-lost tribe of female warriors” to drive out the Dunlendings from Rohan.
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