The
Lord of the Rings film trilogy is the highest grossing motion picture trilogy worldwide of all time, besting such other film franchises as the
Star Wars original trilogy and
The Godfather. The film trilogy also tied a record for the total number of
Academy Awards won.
[35]
The majority of critics have also praised the trilogy, with
Kenneth Turan of the
Los Angeles Times writing that "the trilogy will not soon, if ever, find its equal".
[36] In particular, performances from
Ian McKellen,
[37] Sean Astin,
[38] Sean Bean,
Andy Serkis, and
Bernard Hill stood out for many in audience polls, and special effects for the battles and Gollum were praised. A few critics such as
Roger Ebert of the
Chicago Sun-Times did not rank the trilogy so highly, and while praising the special effects, Ebert was critical of the story,
[39] and none of the films appeared in his "Top 10" lists for their respective years.
[40] Some were also critical of the films' pacing and length: "It's a collection of spectacular set pieces without any sense of momentum driving them into one another" according to the Philadelphia Weekly.
[41] Overall however, the films received a positive 93% critics rating on
rottentomatoes.com, (92% for
FotR, 96% for
TTT and 94% for
Rotk) a consensus amongst film critics.
The trilogy appears in many "Top 10" film lists, such as the
Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association's Top 10 Films,
Time Magazine's All-Time 100 Movies,
James Berardinelli's Top 100,
[42] and The Screen Directory's "Top Ten Films of All Time" (considering the trilogy as "one epic film split into three parts").
[43]. In 2007,
USA Today named the trilogy as the most important films of the past 25 years.
[44]
The
Lord of the Rings trilogy has outsold other contemporary trilogies such as the
Pirates of the Caribbean films, the first three
Harry Potter films, the
Spider-Man film series and the
Star Wars prequels.
[45]
[edit] Academy Awards
The three films together were nominated for a total of 30
Academy Awards, of which they won 17, a record for any movie trilogy.
The Return of the King won in every category in which it was nominated, an extremely rare feat; its Oscar for Best Picture was widely perceived as an award by proxy for the entire trilogy.
The Return of the King also tied a record for the total number of
Academy Awards won, 11, with
Ben-Hur and
Titanic. No actors in any of the three films won Oscars, although
Ian McKellen was nominated for his work in
The Fellowship of the Ring.
- The Fellowship of the Ring — Nominations: 13, Wins: 4
- The Two Towers — Nominations: 6, Wins: 2
- The Return of the King — Nominations: 11,Wins: 11
