One would be forgiven for not noticing, but the new film in one of the most successful franchises in the history of cinema arrived in theaters over the weekend. The film in question is The Lord of the Rings: War of Rohirrim, an animated adaptation of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien that takes place long before the events of director Peter Jackson's original trilogy. Unfortunately, audiences seemed largely uninterested in this spin-off story, given its poor box office performance. That said, Warner Bros.

Directed by Kenji Kamiyama ("Blade Runner: Black Lotus"), "War of the Rohirrim" opened to around $4.6 million at the domestic box office in its debut, landing in fifth place on the charts. Given that The Lord of the Rings films have grossed nearly $6 billion globallyincluding The Hobbit trilogy, that's a shockingly low number. To make matters worse, the film has only earned $5.7 million overseas to date after two weekends of release, giving it a total of $10.3 million. Not exactly a barn burner, to put it mildly.

Critics were a bit mixed on the film and WB didn't spend a fortune marketing it. So why make the movie at all? For one, War of the Rohirrim had a modest budget of just $30 millionmuch less than that of live recordings. More importantly, the studio produced the film to ensure that it retained the rights to The Lord of the Rings. In a statement (via Exhibitor Relations), SB didn't mince words, saying the following:

"Announced in June 2021, The Lord of the Rings: War of Rohirrim was fast-tracked to ensure New Line Cinema didn't lose the film adaptation rights to Tolkien's novels while the 'LOTR' trio of Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens — Worked through the creative vision for the next live-action films in the LOTR film series.

It's very unusual for a studio to come right out and reveal the real reasoning behind its business decisions like this. At the same time, there's no getting around the fact that War of the Rohirrim has been disappointing at the box office so far, and this is Warner Bros.' way of explaining the theatrical omission. It can be seen as a $30 million investment to stay in business in Middle Earth. Also, not for nothing, but with such a low budget, this movie could still make money in the long run, once VOD, streaming, Blu-ray, etc. are factored in.

The anime film is set 183 years before the events of Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy. It tells the fate of the house of Helm Hammerhand, the legendary king of Rohan. The Battle of Helm's Deep was very important in The Two Towers. and this film tries to provide hardcore fans with some historical context. It's about deep stuff that obviously wasn't interesting to casual moviegoers. Then again, SB didn't expect it to be. There's bigger fish to fry - new live-action Lord of the Rings movies. The first of them is called "The Hunt for Gollum", and will be directed by Andy Serkisthe actor who brought Gollum to life. It is expected to hit theaters in 2026. It's just the first new live-action movie the studio is planning, as at least one more of the as-yet-undetermined "LOTR" movies is also in development. That's the end game here. This animated film was just a way to ensure that the rights would not lapse, allowing someone else to acquire them.

I talked more about this in today's episode of the podcast / Film Daily, which you can listen to below:

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The Lord of the Rings: War of Rohirrim is in theaters now.