All New Line Cinema and director Peter Jackson wanted for Christmas was not to be embarrassed. The unwrapping of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring has proved to be a golden gift, a true embarrassment of riches.
The first installment of the already-completed trilogy, New Line’s Fellowship grabbed the largest opening in December history, pulling in $67.4 million over the Christmas weekend and racking up a magical $95.3 million in its first seven days–the third highest first week for a Wednesday opener.
Good news for a company that has bet its future–and $300 million–on the epic fantasy saga.
New Line’s “thrilled” president of domestic distribution David Tuckerman called the box office haul, “a Christmas present for New Line…a Christmas present for the country.”
What differentiates Fellowship from either of the bigger Wednesday openers, Star Wars: Episode I–The Phantom Menace ($124.7 million) and Mission: Impossible 2 ($96.3 million), is that Fellowship is an hour longer, which means fewer showings each day and fewer possible tickets for sale.
The second installment, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, is scheduled for a Christmas 2002 release.
