The Lord of the Rings movies are outperforming some major 2026 titles before even returning to theaters. The Peter Jackson-directed Lord of the Rings trilogy, which debuted in theaters between 2001 and 2003, collectively earned almost $3 billion worldwide and won 17 Oscars. They are returning to theaters in 2026 via Fathom Entertainment in honor of the film franchise’s 25th anniversary.
Per Variety, the impending Lord of the Rings re-releases (namely The Fellowship of the Ring on January 16, The Two Towers on January 17, and The Return of the King on January 18) have sold roughly 407,000 presale tickets, which amount to $5 million at the domestic box office.
This total, which has been reached two days before the first screenings are set to begin (in an increasingly wide number of theaters, as Fathom Entertainment scrambles to react to audience demand), sees the three Lord of the Rings movies collectively outgrossing all but two of the major wide releases of 2026 so far at the domestic box office.
The two titles that Lord of the Rings re-releases have not yet surpassed are the creature feature Primate (which has a cumulative domestic total of $11.9 million in 2,964 theaters at the time of writing) and the post-apocalyptic sequel Greenland 2: Migration ($8.9 million in 2,710 theaters).
However, the 2026 movies that they have already outgrossed include the Daisy Ridley zombie movie We Bury the Dead ($3.5 million in 1,172 theaters) and Angel Studios’ Syria-set drama I Was a Stranger ($1.3 million in 1,400 theaters).
Nielsen EDI defines a domestic wide release as a film playing in 600 theaters or more, making the four aforementioned movies the only wide releases of 2026 so far.
More to come…
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