Set in a mythic pre-history era, The Lord of the Rings tells the saga of a desperate battle against encroaching evil. It collectively re-tells the story of Frodo Baggins, who battles against the Dark Lord, Sauron to save Middle-earth.
New Line Cinema transformed J R R Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings into a grand trilogy of live-action feature films -- The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King.
The trilogy, helped boost New Zealand's tourism earnings by NZ$201 or US$ 130 million in the December quarter. The trilogy was shot at locations in New Zealand.
According to the Guinness Book, till February 22, 2004, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King earned $1 billion at international box office.
It achieved this record figure in just 9 weeks 4 days from its release on December 17, 2003. This makes it the second film in history to break the billion barrier, the first being Titanic, which took the same amount in 11 weeks.
The main protagonist of J.R.R. Tolkien's books is now the lynchpin of an intellectual-property empire earning about $2.2 billion annually.
Pedestrians walk past a giant poster of a movie 'Lord of the Rings'
Photograph: Roslan Rahman/AFP/Getty Images
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