Warner Bros.' latest venture into Middle-earth has stumbled at the box office, as the animated feature 'The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim' opened to disappointing numbers worldwide. The film managed to collect only $4.6 million domestically in its opening weekend, despite receiving the widest release for an anime title in 25 years across 2,600 theaters.
The global box office numbers paint an equally grim picture, with worldwide earnings barely crossing $10 million. This performance falls notably short when compared to the success of Peter Jackson's live-action Lord of the Rings films, which collectively earned over $5.8 billion globally.
Industry insiders suggest the film's creation may have been motivated by Warner Bros.' need to maintain theatrical rights to J.R.R. Tolkien's works, requiring periodic film releases based on the author's books. With a modest budget of $30 million, the anime feature arrived a decade after the studio's last theatrical Tolkien adaptation.
Directed by Kenji Kamiyama and featuring voice performances by Brian Cox as Helm Hammerhand and Miranda Otto returning as Éowyn, the film has received mixed reviews from critics. It currently holds a 52% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, while opening day audiences awarded it a B CinemaScore.
The underwhelming performance adds to Warner Bros.' recent franchise challenges, following lower-than-expected returns from 'Joker: Folie à Deux' and 'Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.' However, the studio appears committed to the franchise, with a new live-action project directed by Andy Serkis, tentatively titled 'The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum,' already in development.
Set centuries before the events of the original trilogy, 'The War of the Rohirrim' has failed to capture the magic that made its predecessors box office giants, with critics pointing to pacing issues and narrative shortcomings as key weaknesses.
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