Tolkien animated adaptations' curse persists

Despite Tolkien’s immortality, this Middle Earth anime has failed.

Animating ‘The Lord of the Rings’ seemed safe. A formula that seemed guaranteed to succeed due to Tolkien’s and Japanese animation’s millions of fans. ‘The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim’ takes viewers 183 years before Peter Jackson’s films to Rohan, where Helm Hammerhand is king and humans must fight the Dunlendings.

Kenji Kamiyama, an expert at modernizing classic franchises like ‘Ghost in the Shell’ and ‘Blade Runner: Black Lotus’, directed the film. The film still needs to be released in key markets like the US, but its first week in 31 countries, including Spain, was disappointing.

Even though Spain has been one of its best markets, with 347,000 dollars, the film has barely grossed two million dollars. Mexico and Thailand follow. It will reach the US and 42 other markets on December 13, but forecasts are poor and this initial figure is unlikely to rise.

Animation seems to curse The Lord of the Rings. The first ambitious version was Ralph Bakshi’s adult animated film, which was plagued by delays and was never completed. Its visual discoveries are numerous, but it is a lame work and did not find its audience because it is far from Peter Jackson’s neat perfection.

The film was criticized as a poor anime. Sola Digital Arts’ work has been called “cheap and flat” and lacks care and depth in the design, far from recent genre successes in theaters like the ‘Guardians of the Night’ saga, which will end its box-office run in 2025. So it’s not so much prejudice against anime (which may also be a factor) as that this anime isn’t great.

A few days ago, we discussed Embracer Group’s struggles to properly exploit ‘The Lord of the Rings’ brand. By mid-November, the conglomerate’s entertainment and services division had dropped 10%, partly due to Tolkien’s expensive IP, which cannot produce many products. The poor box office performance of ‘The War of the Rohirrim’ will not encourage the group to film more installments, and Middle Earth will ban animation for a long time.

The Lords of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, an anime adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel, follows Peter Jackson’s live-action films. These movies were huge hits and popularized the legendary book series. Unfortunately, the new anime won’t have the box office success of those films, a problem in the anime industry.

Some fans think anime is mainstream, but The War of the Rohirrim proves otherwise. Given its series’ pedigree, the film’s box office prospects are bleak. This shows the vulnerability of anime as a mainstream product and how adding an anime aesthetic doesn’t guarantee success.

Even with optimistic projections, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim could open under $30 million USD. This box office projection isn’t bad, but it depends on the movie’s budget. The movie’s budget is unknown and could make or break it. If the budget is low enough, The War of the Rohirrim could be a low-key box office hit, but if it’s near Hollywood animated films, it could fail. Given that its opening weekend will likely be its highest box office haul, its arguably paltry sum will be significant.

Competition, most of which is mainstream, doesn’t help the movie. Sony’s Kraven the Hunter releases the same weekend as The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, and while the Sony Spider-Man Universe is expected to bomb, it does steal some of the anime’s viewers. Mufasa, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and Nosferatu may compete in late December. Even though they are direct competitors, their existence detracts from the Lord of the Rings anime. The movies with hype will have a busy Christmas box office. Thus, given its general reception, it’s hard to see how the anime film succeeds.

Tolkien animated adaptations’ curse persists

Despite Tolkien’s immortality, this Middle Earth anime has failed.

By knl9j

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