Disney Beats Tolkein? Anime 'Lord of the Rings' Prequel Outpaced by 'Moana 2' (variety.com) 59
Peter Jackson is co-executive producer of a new animated Lord of the Rings prequel called The War of the Rohirrim. "Set in an epic world 183 years before the events of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, the King of Rohan is forced into a last stand in ancient Hornburg after a sudden attack..." explains The Hollywood Reporter.
But Variety writes that the movie "fizzled" in its overseas debut this weekend: "Moana 2" has notched $600 million in global ticket sales, standing as the sixth-biggest movie of the year after just two weeks of release. Disney's animated sequel, which was developed as a TV series before pivoting to theaters, has generated $300 million overseas and $300 million domestically... Among new offerings, the Warner Bros. anime fantasy film "The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim," faltered with $2 million from 3,410 screens in 31 territories... [The movie] opens in North America and an additional 42 offshore markets on Dec. 13. Top earning territories were Spain with $347,000 followed by Mexico with $239,000 and Thailand with $146,000...
Meanwhile, Paramount's "Gladiator II" collected $17 million in its fourth frame at the international box office, boosting its tally to $235 million overseas and $368.4 million globally. The quarter-century-in-the-making sequel Ridley Scott's Oscar-winning 2000 epic "Gladiator" has been far bigger in offshore markets... There's also "Red One," a Christmas-set action comedy starring the Rock as Santa's head of security, which collected $3.5 million from 4,000 screens in 75 overseas markets. The film, from Amazon MGM, has generated a soft $78.2 million from offshore territories and $164 million globally. "Red One" was originally destined for streaming before the studio opted for a theatrical release, so any coinage from the big screen could be viewed as a win for movie theaters, Amazon MGM and Warner Bros. (which has international rights on Amazon MGM releases). From a strictly theatrical standpoint, though, "Red One" carries a $250 million budget before marketing and stands as one of the year's biggest misfires.
But Variety writes that the movie "fizzled" in its overseas debut this weekend: "Moana 2" has notched $600 million in global ticket sales, standing as the sixth-biggest movie of the year after just two weeks of release. Disney's animated sequel, which was developed as a TV series before pivoting to theaters, has generated $300 million overseas and $300 million domestically... Among new offerings, the Warner Bros. anime fantasy film "The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim," faltered with $2 million from 3,410 screens in 31 territories... [The movie] opens in North America and an additional 42 offshore markets on Dec. 13. Top earning territories were Spain with $347,000 followed by Mexico with $239,000 and Thailand with $146,000...
Meanwhile, Paramount's "Gladiator II" collected $17 million in its fourth frame at the international box office, boosting its tally to $235 million overseas and $368.4 million globally. The quarter-century-in-the-making sequel Ridley Scott's Oscar-winning 2000 epic "Gladiator" has been far bigger in offshore markets... There's also "Red One," a Christmas-set action comedy starring the Rock as Santa's head of security, which collected $3.5 million from 4,000 screens in 75 overseas markets. The film, from Amazon MGM, has generated a soft $78.2 million from offshore territories and $164 million globally. "Red One" was originally destined for streaming before the studio opted for a theatrical release, so any coinage from the big screen could be viewed as a win for movie theaters, Amazon MGM and Warner Bros. (which has international rights on Amazon MGM releases). From a strictly theatrical standpoint, though, "Red One" carries a $250 million budget before marketing and stands as one of the year's biggest misfires.
Why (Score:3, Insightful)
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is this headline here? Moana 2 could be 2 hours of a shit stain not moving and it'd still make money.
It could be 2 hours of a shit stain and it would still be better than anime LotR.
I pick YOU Horc-Orc!
One Ring To Catch 'em All!
Jesus, KMN.
Re: Why (Score:2)
I'd take "anime lotr" over nu-not-lotr any day. Anime is just an art style. At least they aren't trying to recast the orcs as scrappy downtrodden freedom fighter commies who dindu muffin wrong.
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Wait until you see the Gollum fanservice.
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We already had that:
https://store.steampowered.com... [steampowered.com]
It didn't sell.
Amazon poisoned the well (Score:2, Interesting)
Peter Jackson's mistake was releasing "The War of the Rohirrim" while Amazon's "The Rings of Power" is still stinking up the Tolkien universe.
It may be another generation before anyone can film another LoTR-related story without the baggage of the current shows dragging it down.
Re:Amazon poisoned the well (Score:5, Insightful)
No, his mistake was taking a normal non-warrior character who there was one whole sentence about in the Silmarillion and turning her into a super girlboss central to an entire movie.
Incels aren't the problem (Score:2)
Reactionaries just want to set fire to everything out of hate and rage and bitterness. No amount of money will get them the love their crave because they're completely broken and they don't really wanna fix themselves. Many have blundered into good jobs or property or something, and they're using their good fortune to shit all over the world.
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Naw, Incels want to get laid AND are pissed off that women actually matter as individuals.
Re: Incels aren't the problem (Score:1)
I know. The worst of them cannot even bring themselves to define the word "woman." Over some desire to ruin the concept entirely, one must assume.
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it's reactionaries. Incels just wanna get laid. Fix the economy and you fix that.
What does a 'fixed' economy look like, and how does that result in incels getting laid?
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If you'd read the books you'd know that calling Eowyn a girlboss is retarded. She is not portrayed as some grand fighter who overcame the magic, but was able to avoid the prophecy, along with Merry, neither of whom were men. Almost like it was Tolkien playing with the Macbeth take on prophecies. Moreover, her final line in the books casts aside any further thoughts of battle
Then the heart of Éowyn changed, or else at last she understood it. ... I will be a shieldmaiden no longer, nor vie with the great Riders, nor take joy only in the songs of slaying. I will be a healer, and love all things that grow and are not barren.
There are also Tolkien's musings on the character, further cementing she is not a girlboss.
"Though not a 'dry nurse' in temper, she was also not really a soldier or 'Amazon', but like many brave women was capable of great military gallantry at a crisis."
As for the other two, neither Linda Hamilton
Re:Amazon poisoned the well (Score:4, Insightful)
Weaver's Ripley is pretty damned unique in media history. While you're right that in the second film they give her a more familiar female motivation, in the first film, she is literally just an employee, along with the rest of the crew (except the android I suppose). The first film is firmly planted in the "technician" trop from the Golden Age of science fiction; in which it is technicians and engineers that save the day, and not space jockeys (i.e the Jedi or the Kwisatz Haderach). Ripley's success comes down to her being slightly more lucky and slightly smarter than her companions, not because of her gender. As much as I love Alien II (which is pretty much the best military sci-fi film ever made), I feel there was some diminution of the utilitarian ethic of the first film; a group of employees working for a faceless evil corporation who just do their best to survive.
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Re: Amazon poisoned the well (Score:2)
Dude not everything is about your man-hatred...
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" Dude not everything is about politics and woke get over yourself."
That is exactly what it is about, hombre. The whole industry has accepted the "checkbox approach". Nothing, I repeat, nothing, I will say it again, NOTHING gets made or released if it does not conform to the DEI shitshow and has all the check boxes ticked in. Ergo, everything that is released is crap. No exceptions.
That is the industry's doing, their choice and no one else's. Now, reap the consequences.
Listen, all of ya wannabe west
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Nothing new about that, Archie Bunker. I mean, Ricky Ricardo. It's all a matter of perspective on what decade you get stuck in.
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Remember no man could take down the nazgul.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but the way the prophecy worked is that it took teamwork. She could not do it alone, because she was still "a man" being of the race of men. It took help from a hobbit, who also, being a man by gender, could not do it alone. If Rosie Cotton was there, she could have done it on her own.
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No, his mistake was taking a normal non-warrior character who there was one whole sentence about in the Silmarillion and turning her into a super girlboss central to an entire movie.
No... seriously wtf? Do you just see female characters and automatically go full incel?
It failed for obvious reasons.
The LoTR movies were live action movies of a young-adult adventure book. And they were wildly successful.
Peter Jackson then followed up with live action movies of the kid-book prequels. And they predictably flopped.
Now he's following up with an film seemingly written for adults, but with an animation style that would strike most westerners as a kids movie at a time at which there's already an
Re: Amazon poisoned the well (Score:2)
"Ewwww GIRLS!" - ravenshrike 2024
It won't make sense now but bookmark this for when you hit puberty, it'll be funny
Most don't even know what the Silmarillion even is (Score:2)
As if 99% of theater goers even know what the Silmarillion is let alone this one individual line from it. Shoot, I'd bet most of the incels upset by this wouldn't have even known to put on their crying pants if someone hadn't told them to be outraged.
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In their defense, the stuff that is actually in the Silmarilion would not make a good movie. Sauron turning transforming into a werewolf and fighting a talking dog, for example.
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I think in time, when Middle Earth enters the public domain, it will become like Camelot and King Arthur: something that inspires authors for centuries to come to put their own stamp on. This is a good thing, certainly better than Middle Earth being forever limited to endlessly rehashing scraps of partially completed Tolkien stories.
But just because that's good thing doesn't mean every story based on Middle Earth will be good. After all, not every book about King Arthur is as good as The Once and Future K
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Well...probably more so that "The Hobbit" trilogy was not-so-good.
They're trying to milk the Tolkein universe, like they did/are the Star Wars universe...with equally "meh" results.
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There is no cash cow IP in the universe that can hold up to the level of milking that Hollywood attempts.
Re:Fuck the haters (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm enjoying Rings of Power as well. Of course, I don't have much attachment to the source material. I read Silmarillion a long time ago. Probably should read it again. Don't really care how badly they are butchering shit.
With that said, I can't 100% understand the hate and it is well deserved. I'm a Wheel of Time fanatic and what Amazon has done is criminal. I watched first season and died a little inside. The fact they slapped the label "Wheel of Time" on it is beyond the pale. They should of just made what they made but called it anything fucking else.
The same could be said about Rings of Power honestly. Call it whatever you want but just don't smear LOTR with that.
Re: Fuck the haters (Score:1)
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No insult taken. I have read the detractors and I have met fans. He's long winded and more about world building then really moving that story along. Way to many characters and the many of them need more depth.
Of course, he's actually built a world, created a fun magic system, gave it immense backstory and depth. It's really a history book of his world he made. He has numerous different cultures modeled off real world cultures but also adds in unique stuff that enriches the whole story.
There's no accounting
The estate blessed the poison (Score:4, Interesting)
Dude I'm an anime nut (Score:4, Informative)
In any case Americans don't watch these kind of movies. The DC animated movies can get by on the license and every now and then something like the Castlevania stuff can do okay but you're not going to get a theatrical release out of it. And that's before the complete and utter lack of absolutely any promotion.
I mean they could have at least asked Sabre spark over on YouTube to do a video about it. I think the '90s fantastic four movie got more promotion than this
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In any case Americans don't watch these kind of movies.
I'm not sure what "these kinds of movies" refers to. Not anime, since a number of anime movies have been released into the US during the past couple of years and seem have done reasonably well at the box office. It is true that they mainly market them to anime fans rather than the wider population, if that's what you're referring to... but they do appear to be meeting the companies' expectations. Sony/Crunchyroll has been going this way more frequently now than in past years.
Traditional cell drawn animation (Score:2)
And of course there was Titan AE which was one of the biggest box office bombs in histor
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This looks like an anime for anime fans, unfortunately. I expect this kind of thing to be straight to netflix, like the witcher anime. The trailer makes it look like its made to sell 10 inch tall figurines of a red haired girl with a sword, or maybe body pillows. Not immerse the viewer in the world of Tolkien. I would not take my mom to see this. I would take my mom to see something like The Wind Rises, though.
Re: Dude I'm an anime nut (Score:2)
In any case Americans don't watch these kind of movies. The DC animated movies can get by on the license and every now and then something like the Castlevania stuff can do okay but you're not going to get a theatrical release out of it. And that's before the complete and utter lack of absolutely any promotion.
Cheese you're even bad at the things you care about. I'm not even an anime fan and I know there have been more than a few anime theatrical releases. In contrast to the US, animation wasn't even taken seriously in Japan for theatrical releases until after Princess Mokonoke, which did see a theatrical release in the US. As did Spirited Away, which won an oscar for best animated picture.
The reason Castlevania won't see a theatrical release is purely because Netflix just doesn't care to do them, pretty much onl
The amount of money made in the theatrical runs (Score:2)
Re: The amount of money made in the theatrical run (Score:2)
Doesn't come close to covering the cost of making the movies The money is made on Blu-ray sales and model kits and merchandise and what have you. The theatrical runs are really just promotional.
This isn't even remotely true. If a movie isn't anticipated to do well in its opening weekend at the box office, they do either a tv release or a straight to video release. The movie theater is where they historically stand to make the most money, though ever since COVID that has been rapidly changing.
Netflix is an exception because they're completely vertically integrated. They don't need movie theaters or the costs that go along with all of that. They remain more profitable by simply maintaining subscribe
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Both were sh!t (Score:1)
s/Tolkein/s/Tolkien/ (Score:2)
or rather s/Tolkein/Peter Jackson/
It hasn't been released yet ? (Score:3)
Release date is 12/13. People wonder why they call it lamestream media?? They can't even get release dates correct.
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Release date for Brazil, Mexico, Spain, etc. was 12/5. It's a bullshit comparison, but it has been released where the article says it has been released.
Not tech news (Score:1)
What is a Variety piece doing on a tech site?
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What is a Variety piece doing on a tech site?
Slashdot is not a "tech site".
It is "for nerds", which means socially maladjusted people, mostly young men, who are obsessed with something that most people don't care about. That obsession often happens to be "tech", because computers can offer an escape from participation in society. It so happens that many nerds are obsessed with the realm of fantasy. The quintessential work of which is Lord Of The Rings.
Which is why a Variety piece on LoTR is on Slashdot.
Besides, any sufficiently advanced technology is
Non-English International only (Score:5, Informative)
War of the Rohirrim's one week of limited international release in non-English speaking territories is being compared to Moana 2 after two weeks in wide domestic plus international release, and someone thinks this is a reasonable comparison.
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War of the Rohirrim's one week of limited international release in non-English speaking territories is being compared to Moana 2 after two weeks in wide domestic plus international release, and someone thinks this is a reasonable comparison.
Point taken, but the larger question remains. Why in the hell was it a one week of limited international release in non-English speaking territories?
The original trilogy grossed three billion worldwide. I find it hard to believe someone was worried a new movie would flop that hard. Does the story SUCK that hard or something?
Weve seen amateur YouTube streamers open to a larger audience than that.
Anything beats DEI Hobbits (Score:1)
They have ruined Tolkein's work beyond recognition. I'd rather read a book than watch their self-promoting political nonsense.
animation style killed it (Score:2)
Top comments (Score:2)
Top comments on the trailer are a goldmine of hilarity:
"But 200 years before that, there was an older tale."
Yup, that's how time works.
The fandom: it’d be great if we get more on Helm Hammerhand
Hollywood: we heard your feedback and we are excited to instead do a show all about his daughter
LotR fans: "I want Helm Hammerhand."
WB: "Best I can do is his unnamed daughter."
Its a miracle that the lotr trilogy was made in the 2000s. A miracle that we are coming to understand day by day...
There it is! The old
Disney Beats Tolkein? (Score:1)
never thought I'd see it (Score:2)
"Tolkien" misspelled on Slashdot.
It really is the end times.