Kristin Thompson 45
KRISTIN THOMPSON
Fantasy, Franchises, and Frodo Baggins:
The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood
Get ready to write a sequel.
Why are fantasies so suited to franchises? The genre
 Gandalf to Bilbo in J. R. R. Tolkien,
offers many obvious advantages. Fantasies are assumed
The Fellowship of the Ring
to appeal most to the teenagers and young adults who
have since the 1980s been the demographic sector of
greatest interest to Hollywood studios because they had
Wizards Enchant Hollywood
the highest moviegoing frequency and considerable dis-
hree of the seven films that have grossed posable income. Moreover, fantasies lend themselves to
over $800,000,000 worldwide were released a broad range of merchandizing, and fantasy fans tend
within a five-month period, and all three to collect things. We do not see action figures of the
T
were fantasy films: Harry Potter and the characters in A Beautiful Mind, a film that also lacks
Sorcerer s Stone (number 2, released November 2001, gross the potential for tie-ins with fast-food chains and other
$965,700,000), The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the producers of publicity-generating ancillary products, es-
Ring (number 5, December 2001, $860,200,000), and pecially videogames. Another advantage is that in most
Spider-Man (number 7, April 2002, $803,600,000).1 cases where a film attracts repeat viewings, it is young
Indeed, except for the highest-grossing film, Titanic, the people who are going more than once as in the case
top ten are all fantasies (assuming The Lion King can be of the teenage girls who go to LOTR over and over to
put into that category) or science fiction. The rapid see Orlando Bloom (playing Legolas). Young people are
succession of three big hits launching franchises, the more likely to purchase DVDs than VHS cassettes, and
publicity drama of New Line s risk in making all three the industry would like nothing better than to have
Lord of the Rings (LOTR) films simultaneously, and the the new format take over completely, given that the
enthusiasm of fan bases created a high profile for Harry manufacturing cost per unit is lower and sell-through
Potter,Fellowship, and Spider-Man. Two of these films were prospects are more robust.2 If fantasy films are adapted
wizard tales adapted from prestigious British fantasy from popular literature or comic books, some among
series with an appeal to both children and adults, and their existing fan audience will be willing to provide
the advantages of such largely overlooked source mate- free publicity on Websites. Certainly, fans in various
rial for franchises struck a chord in the industry. As I genres provide this sort of publicity, but fantasy series
finished revising this article this trend was continuing: tend to foster an interest in esoteric knowledge (e.g.,
The Two Towers was in its sixth week of release and was studying Klingon). The same sort of self-proclaimed
approaching a worldwide gross of nearly $800,000,000, geekiness that leads people to construct Websites also
and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, though not tends to be found among fantasy fans. Fantasy films can
doing as well as the first film, will probably cross the also be turned into video games, which bring in addi-
same figure eventually. tional revenues, promote the video releases of earlier
The Velvet Light Trap, Number 52, Fall 2003 ©2003 by the University of Texas Press, P.O. Box 7819, Austin, TX 78713-7819
46 Fantasy, Franchises, and Frodo Baggins
kid. I have always wanted to make a fantasy film. That
films in a franchise, and generate interest in upcoming
genre is not really popular, and the studios don t really
entries. These films usually include elaborate special ef-
like it anymore. The best thing about this for me is that
fects, which can spawn making-of documentaries, and
it has put me in the position of showing Hollywood
these stand a good chance of airing as half-hour or hour-
studios that fantasy can be successful at the box office if
long advertisements for the film on the Sci Fi Channel
it is done in a certain way. That for me is the proudest
and similar cable outlets hungry for infotainment
thing of these films that I have taken a genre that I
programming. Comparable coverage appears in maga-
love, which Hollywood doesn t, and proved to them
zines and of the specialist magazines within the gen- that it can be successful.5
eral area of film, the greatest number are devoted to
horror, science fiction, and fantasy. Explanations of To a considerable extent he has succeeded, from the
special effects also make attractive supplements to DVDs. largely positive reviews accorded the first film to its thir-
Thanks to publicity, big budgets are enough in them- teen Oscar nominations and four technical and design
selves to create events: tentpole films designed for the wins. The second film seems poised for similar success,
summer or Christmas holidays. and a conventional wisdom seems to be developing that
Fantasy has traditionally been closely linked with the the third film will finally bring Oscar wins in the cen-
science fiction genre. Specialty bookshops often deal in tral categories.6
both, and video rental and sales racks often have a com- LOTR, however, brought limitations as a potential
bined fantasy/sci fi section. Yet for years, fantasy films franchise. For one thing, the novel ends in definitive
have, not without reason, been the butt of jokes.3 The closure, with several of the most interesting characters
past two years, however, have seen the balance tip in the leaving Middle-earth permanently. Initially, this
other direction. A perception of this change has filtered probably made little difference to the filmmakers, who
into the culture at large, as evidenced by Time cover emphasized their risk in making three expensive films
stories on Towers and the LOTR phenomenon: simultaneously. Now they no doubt wish they had opted
for six, following the six untitled  books, two per vol-
The past quarter-century of American popular culture ume, into which Tolkien divided his novel. The earlier
was ruled by the great mega-franchises of science fic-
novel to which LOTR is a sequel, The Hobbit, might
tion Star Wars, Star Trek, Independence Day,The Matrix.
well be produced sooner or later, but otherwise there
But lately, since the turn of the millennium or so, we ve
seems no way that, beyond the extended versions of-
been dreaming very different dreams. The stuff of those
fered on DVD, the films can be remolded into a lengthier
dreams is fantasy sword and sorcerers, knights and la-
franchise, let alone an open-ended one of the X-Men
dies, magic and unicorns. In 2001 the fantasy double
variety.
bill of Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings ranked first
A different sort of limitation arose from the fact that
and second at the boxoffice, and it s happening all over
again this year.4 the books had a significant and devoted fan base, many
of whom were highly suspicious of what Hollywood
might do with the original. Such fans were not enough
The decision to adapt Tolkien s three-volume novel
to support a blockbuster hit, and the filmmakers would
(published in 1954 55) into a three-film series yielded
have to lure a much larger audience who had never read
all these advantages and more. LOTR was by the 1990s
the books or heard of hobbits. Still, the book s fans were
a classic. Producer-director-scriptwriter Peter Jackson
important disproportionately to their numbers, for many
perhaps aimed to make the films do for fantasy what
of them were vociferous and had either their own
Kubrick s 2001 had done for science fiction inject
Websites or at least a niche within a larger site. In the
prestige into a previously despised genre. (In Towers,
Gandalf s visions while dead seem likely to be a deliber- wake of The Blair Witch Project, Hollywood understood
the power of the Internet to publicize films, often on
ate homage to the  star gate sequence of Kubrick s film.)
sites where fans labored for free to do so.
Certainly, a recent interview suggests as much:
Approaching the production, the filmmakers faced a
I guess what had meant a lot to me personally is that I huge, flawed, but complex and arguably great novel that
am working in a genre that I have loved since I was a
was aimed at adults while read by children (whereas The
Kristin Thompson 47
Hobbit and the Harry Potter series were children s it was of necessity aimed primarily at teenage and young-
books read by adults). Unlike most fantasies, LOTR was adult audiences.
admired not just by young fans but by older adults, Louis Menand s review of Fellowship for the NewYork
including many academics, who had read and reread Review suggests as much. Menand read LOTR at age
the books for decades. The filmmakers would have dif- eleven, in 1963. His memory of the book, he says,  is a
ficulty turning LOTR into a prestige franchise with broad residual sense of the lore of Middle Earth, the stories
appeal unless they convinced a substantial part of upon stories that the characters and the narrator tell, an
the public that the integrity of the original would be elaborate, unfinished saga of another world erased, by
maintained. now, of almost all detail. I do not remember The Lord of
I shall argue, then, that the filmmakers were confronted the Rings as a violent book. I remember it as an eleven-
with and largely met two large challenges in adapting year-old s Proust. Menand saw the film with a fourteen
LOTR. Their first task was to transform a literary work year old:  I said to him,  They really made a lot of stuff
primarily oriented toward adults into a movie for teenag- up for the movie. He patiently explained to me that
ers without that fact being obvious. Both fantasy films everything in the movie is an almost literal recreation of
and franchises traditionally have been scorned as teenage the book. Menand makes a good stab at explaining the
fodder by older audiences, and that perception could not generational difference in perception:
be reinforced. Second, in order to extract the full value of
the original book, much of the core fan base had to be
What I had read as a kind of historical novel, he had
reassured and made devotees of the film as well. Once the
read as a fantasy adventure. His visual imagination was
filmmakers accomplished these two things, the other ad-
shaped by a completely different stock of stylistic refer-
vantages of fantasy franchises would follow. ents, from Xena,Warrior Princess to Crouching Tiger, Hid-
den Dragon, and most of all from the virtual reality of
computerized games. Hundreds of orcs swarming up
Kung Fu Elf, Samurai Wizard
huge pillars in underground caverns, enormous armies
flattened by a burst of supernatural light, people being
Peter Bogdanovich recently succinctly described what
swept up hundreds of feet into the air these are all the
a lot of people have no doubt sensed about much
ordinary images of PlayStation, Game Boy, and com-
modern Hollywood cinema:  You look at the average,
puter games like Ages of Empires or Diablo II. . . .
well-made movie of the  30s . . . well, not average, but
Peter Jackson s first cinematic love is horror movies,
the good movies of the  30s: Trouble in Paradise or The and The Fellowship of the Ring is nearly a horror movie
in its intensity. Young kids will be scared. And for kids
Lady Eve or The Awful Truth. If you look at it today, you ll
pushing fifty, there is a lesson about the evolution of
see that those films were made for adults, but kids could
the mind s eye over the last thirty-five years that may be
see them. Whereas today, films are made for kids, and
a little painful. It s not Proust anymore.9
adults are expected to tolerate them. 7 This is not strictly
true, in that there are still many films made for adults,
and some outgross many a franchise blockbuster. The Proust is perhaps an odd comparison. Tolkien seems
Sixth Sense spent years on the top-ten list of the high- to me to have written the sort of book Dickens or
est-earning films in markets outside the United States. Scott might have if he had lived into the late Victorian
A Beautiful Mind s domestic gross of $170,742,341 was period, when fantasy had become more fashionable.
over twice that of New Line s next franchise release Tolkien has traits in common with Dickens, from the
after Fellowship, Blade II, at $81,676,888.8 Such films may superb descriptions and dialogue to the occasional
be, however, difficult to gauge in terms of box-office lapses into cliché and sentimentality. But Menand s
potential. Often they are surprise successes, such as The general point is taken, that a book about imaginatively
Full Monty and My Big Fat Greek Wedding, or dependent conceived characters on a lengthy journey with occa-
on Oscar nominations and wins to boost their earnings, sional skirmishes has been turned into what might, on
as happened with Shakespeare in Love and A Beautiful the basis of Fellowship at any rate, seem to some a gal-
Mind. The fact that Fellowship attracted adults and won lery of battles and monsters. Tolkien was writing his
some Oscars, however, should not obscure the fact that novel in the 1930s and 1940s, the era of films like The
48 Fantasy, Franchises, and Frodo Baggins
A bellicose Gandalf the White is framed
in this image so that his staff looks like
the handle of a sword.
Awful Truth and The Lady Eve, a period when, as the film indicate a dedication that goes beyond what
Bogdanovich says, adult tastes in literature and films one could imagine being devoted to most fantasy fran-
largely ruled the popular culture market. Jackson s film chises. Rather, the filmmakers could hardly expect to
was made in an age of adolescent tastes, and he has receive backing, let alone the considerable resources and
given us a film for the current generation. creative freedom they enjoyed, without dealing with the
This is not to say that Jackson and company willfully realities of the current market. Arguably, they managed
and cynically exploited Tolkien s novel. Quite the to convey something of the complexity of Tolkien s
contrary all indications are that this was a labor of love created world (primarily through design and technical
for most of the cast and craftspeople involved. Descrip- devices) while simplifying the narrative and introduc-
tions of the amount of effort, expense, and ingenuity ing conventions from modern genres that would appeal
that went into the design and technical aspects of to young viewers unfamiliar with the original novel.
Kristin Thompson 49
Most obviously, the films introduce more and longer In Towers there is less of this horror film element,
action scenes. Although Tolkien s The Two Towers and The though it is certainly still present. During the passage of
Return of the King have war scenes that lend themselves the Dead Marshes in the book, Frodo stops and stares at
to big action set pieces, Fellowship is relatively limited in the dead faces in the water, but in the film he plunges in
such possibilities: the Black Riders attack at Weathertop, and sinks to confront the corpses. Special effects chief
a brief battle in the Mines of Moria, and Gandalf  s fatal Richard Taylor speaks of the prosthetic masks used on
confrontation with the Balrog. The Watcher in the Wa- the actors for this scene as creating  screaming, horrific,
ter (the octopuslike creature outside the west gate of zombified poses. 11 In other scenes, the Uruk-hai
Moria) and the cave troll appear for two brief paragraphs warriors, Orcs, and Wargs draw to some extent upon
each; the Watcher grabs Frodo with one tentacle, which horror imagery as well. Both films make Saruman a sort
Sam chops off before the Fellowship flees into the mines. of Dr. Frankenstein figure, creating living beings (the
The cave troll never actually gets inside the Chamber of Uruk-hai) in a vast workshop, and in the second film,
Mazarbul but retreats after Frodo stabs its foot. These the treacherous Grima acts as his evil assistant. In the
scenes have been considerably expanded, no doubt in book, Theoden remains lucid but falls into despair and
part because they could provide better material for physical decline through Grima s treacherous council,
videogames which, as we shall see, are an increasingly and Gandalf  heals the king through simple eloquence
important part of the modern franchise. and force of personality. The film posits that Theoden is
Jackson has described this aspect of the film adapta- possessed by Saruman and has Gandalf perform a sort of
tion:  One of the real motivations for me to want to exorcism. Towers also draws upon war imagery of the
make The Lord of the Rings was the monsters. It seems fantastical sort familiar from sword-and-sorcery
like a strange thing to admit, because obviously the videogames.
film has a lot more going for it than just monsters. Beyond this, however, based on the first two films, it
But I ve always thought it would be great to do, you seems to me that the filmmakers have linked other recent
know, a fantasy film in that Harryhausen style, but with genre conventions to some of the characters. Most obvi-
computer-generated creatures. On the specific mon- ously, the widespread impact of martial-arts choreography
sters, Jackson comments: from Japanese and Chinese films is reflected in Towers.
Legolas develops on traits from the first film, as described
(On the Watcher in the Water)
by Orlando Bloom in an interview:  I become Action Elf
In the book it s not really much more than a tentacle
on this movie. The bow was my signature weapon, but
that sort of squirms out of the water and then gets
there s also some close combat stuff where I ve got these
chopped off, and I just wanted this creature to be a
two white knives and I get them wet, you know. Stunt
little bit more monstery than that. . . .
coordinator Bob Anderson honed my fighting skills and I
had a great stunt double called Morgan. He taught me
(On the cave troll)
We took our lead from the book again, with the mithril most of my routines showed me some really flashy moves.
vest gag, where Frodo gets stabbed in the chest by the
Most of those stunt people were amazing; black belts in
vest, but we just milked it a little more. I mean, that s
everything. 12 In Fellowship Legolas had fought primarily
often what we did in the film, was to take our lead from
with his bow, occasionally resorting to a pair of knives.
sections of the book, but then sort of to milk them for
The filmmakers have taken advantage of the scene in the
all they re worth, in much more of a movie sort of way.
novel where Gandalf, Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas arrive
at the royal hall of Meduseld and are forced to leave their
(On the Balrog)
weapons outside. Deprived of his bow and knives, Legolas
The introduction of the Balrog didn t happen quite in
proves adept at manual combat, striking a soldier behind
this way, but we just wanted to make a sort of rollicking
Indiana-Jones-type sequence out of it, really, to have
him with a kung fu blow. (During the battle of Helm s
some fun with it.10
Deep, the elf slides down a stairway on a shield as if it were
a skateboard, firing arrows as he goes a move not
The Black Riders, which do figure extensively in the derived from martial arts but, again, designed to appeal to
book, also borrow from horror film conventions. a youth audience.)
50 Fantasy, Franchises, and Frodo Baggins
In The Two Towers Legolas executes a backward punch derived from . . .
. . . Bruce Lee s fighting style as displayed in The Chinese Connection.
Perhaps more surprisingly, in Towers Gandalf the White enhanced, but the book gives only sketchy indications
gains traits of both action figures and superheroes. In as to how. The filmmakers clearly wanted to create an
Tolkien s novel there is little change in Gandalf  s obvious physical contrast between the character s Grey
appearance between his incarnations as the Grey and and White identities so that audiences would under-
the White apart from shining from within after his stand that a profound change had occurred. Apart from
return, a fact that he disguises, as in the film, with a gray his changed appearance, Gandalf becomes much more
cloak. He does not grow younger looking, and his hair vigorous and bellicose. Many publicity photos show him
is white throughout the novel. His power is clearly in active poses and looking threatening, with bared
Kristin Thompson 51
The battle as Gandalf and the Balrog fall into the deep abyss under the Bridge of Khazad-dûm is framed and edited to make
the wizard look like a flying superhero.
teeth.13 McKellen was evidently told to use the term into darkness on his back, but after his plunge off the bridge
 samurai in relation to his transformed character, and in Towers, he whizzes down head first, catching up first to
the word appears in nearly every interview. Some samples: his sword and then to the Balrog, implying some sort of
 The turn of the battle of Helm s Deep sees Gandalf propulsion beyond gravity. In one of the interviews quoted
commit himself samurai-like to the fray ;  He s wearing above, where McKellen uses the samurai comparison, the
white samurai clothes. He s a commander, not a bumbling author s text invokes another action film of 2002:   Un-
one. He is a different character ;  He is reborn literally. like some action heroes, [McKellen] chuckles, tickled by
He is now Gandalf the White, more energetic; he s a the notion of being classified in the same bracket as Vin
commander, a samurai. He s got a job to do and he s not Diesel [in XXX],  we do see Gandalf off duty. He s still
going to be distracted this time. 14 A number of very humane.  16
commonly used publicity images show Gandalf wield- Even before this transformation, Gandalf gets involved
ing his staff rather as if it were a sword (as indeed he in the expanded action scenes of Fellowship. In discuss-
does during the Helm s Deep battle).15 ing the special effects in the film s first scene with
Even more unpredictably, new imagery also makes Saruman, Peter Jackson had this to say:
Gandalf a sort of geriatric superhero. With Legolas as a
 I don t particularly like wizard battles, Jackson
kung fu fighter, the hobbits as humble everyman
acknowledged.  I have an immediate bad reaction to
figures, Gimli as the comic warrior, and Aragorn as the
images of blue lightning bolts being fired out of finger-
heroic warrior, Gandalf, with his supernatural powers, re-
tips, flashes of smoke and all of that usual magical stuff.
mains as the most obvious candidate for this role. The
So I always had some trepidation about the wizard fight.
opening sequence of Towers, showing Gandalf fighting the
I thought it would be funny, and more interesting, to
Balrog as the pair plunge down the abyss below the Bridge
see two old guys just beating the crap out of each
of Khazad-dûm, is filmed with rapid movements toward
other. 17
and away from the camera as well as several horizontal
compositions and rapid pans as the two flash past the cam- In fact, in the books Saruman and Gandalf never have a
era, all suggesting that they are flying as much as falling. In physical fight. The two wizards already are on tense terms
Fellowship Gandalf is last seen floating passively downward by the time the action begins, but their confrontation is
52 Fantasy, Franchises, and Frodo Baggins
Gandalf the White s costume and make-up appear to be derived . . .
. . . from those of the white-bearded monk (or white-eyebrowed sifu) figure in kung fu films, as in Executioner from Shaolin.
Kristin Thompson 53
limited to an argument that Saruman concludes by The great advantage of a popular literary work like
threatening to torture Gandalf until he reveals the where- LOTR for a film franchise is obviously its built-in popu-
abouts of the Ring and then imprisoning him on the lation of fans, but the filmmakers also had to create a
roof. The fight as staged, however, would be more ap- new, larger audience. Balancing its potential audiences
pealing to a teenage audience. affected LOTR at every stage, from planning to shoot-
Apart from the expansion of the violent action, the ing to postproduction to marketing to ancillaries. Given
dialogue and staging in many nonaction scenes change the nearly two-year shooting schedule and even longer
the book s action so as to heighten suspense and dread CGI work involved in three annual releases, the jug-
in the manner of horror and thriller films. In the film, gling act with these two publics has been lengthy and
for example, Gandalf leaves the Shire to seek the answer fascinating. In particular, the publicity campaign extended
to his questions about the Ring, which he finds in the over the period when Hollywood companies were dis-
scroll of Isildur in the archives of Minas Tirith (though covering the power of the Internet.
the city is not identified at this point). His return, after The filmmakers and marketers began with one signal
an unspecified length of time, to test the Ring by put- advantage: many fans desperately wanted to love the films.
ting it in the fire is handled implausibly, with Frodo (The same phenomenon can be observed in other
wandering nervously into his dark hallway at Bag End fandoms, including those for the Star Wars and Star Trek
and Gandalf popping out of the darkness, disheveled series.) One such fan, Scott Edelman, the editor of Sci
and panicky, to ask,  Is it secret? Is it safe? Similarly, Fi, has articulated this desire so clearly and succinctly
Arwen s nocturnal arrival in the woods, seeking to res- that his description deserves to be quoted at some length.
cue Frodo, begins with her standing offscreen and hold- Edelman identifies himself as an ex-hippie who loves
ing a sword to Aragorn s throat; as we have not yet been Tolkien s novels:
introduced to her, this gesture initially appears as a threat.
So when I first heard that director Peter Jackson was
Treebeard is initially distinctly more threatening toward
going to tackle filming the trilogy, I grew fearful. I had
Merry and Pippin when they encounter him in Fangorn
long since given up the dream. Perhaps, I told myself,
Forest, squeezing and frightening them.
turning those particular words into cinematic reality
Many of these changes upset fans of the books, though
was unfeasible. Not every story is filmable. Maybe we
many accepted them as good fun and elements in another
should just be glad that the books had been written in
version of the same basic story. The huge enthusiasm evi-
the first place, and forget about trying to do the impos-
denced by millions unfamiliar with the book indicates
sible.
that the changes the filmmakers made did indeed success-
Even though I had enjoyed Jackson s earlier films, I
was confident that when The Fellowship of the Ring ap-
fully evoke conventions that appeal to a mass audience.
peared on the screen, it would cause me to weep. I can t
Creating a film with broad appeal is far from the end
remember when I was so nervous attending a screen-
of the process. There are more to franchises than pre-
ing. I guess that was because my lifelong love of Tolkien
dictable ticket sales. The film must be publicized on a
had left me feeling invested in the critical success of the
massive scale, and for a modern Hollywood franchise
film in a way that just wasn t present for the average
series, this process to a considerable extent exploits the
genre film.
Internet. Similarly, theatrical box-office returns are only
As it turned out, the film indeed brought me to
one part of a film s income, and an increasingly impor- tears, though not for the reasons I feared. At my first
glimpse of The Shire, I was able to relax. And with each
tant part of the additional revenues come from video
passing instant, I nodded and thought,  Yes, yes, that s it,
and videogames.
he s nailed it. Jackson s obvious love for Tolkien filled
the screen, and I was transported to many places not
LOTR in the Computer Age
only back to Hobbiton, but back to my childhood
dreams as well.18
With 100 million near-pathological readers, this story
of a ring, a heroic shortarse and an imminent apoca-
On  Ain t It Cool News, a site that has made no
lypse has become a global brand to rival Coca Cola or
Microsoft.  Ian Nathan, Empire attempt to hide its uncontrolled enthusiasm for Jackson s
54 Fantasy, Franchises, and Frodo Baggins
project, contributor Moriarty stated:  I want RETURN corporate asset but as holy writ, and Paddison straddles
OF THE KING to be a masterpiece that towers over the line between their needs and the demands of AOL
the genre, because it feels to me like Jackson and his Time Warner s global marketing machine. 21
collaborators have earned it. 19 Among other things, the Internet made it possible
As the Edelman passage suggests, however, many fans for digital publicity items to be given away on a mass
have also been extremely skeptical about the films. To a scale with minimal expense. As Paddison said,  We go
considerable extent the filmmakers have been using the where the fans are and give them stuff. 22 The film s
Internet to try and reassure that existing fan base. There Website features downloadable screensavers, wallpaper,
are thousands of Websites devoted in whole or part to interviews, and, perhaps most crucially, trailers. On 7
Tolkien, many of which, of course, predate the films and April 2001 the first trailer for LOTR was made available
relate to his literary work. I have monitored only a few exclusively on the site. The trailer set a record by being
of the most prominent sites, some devoted wholly to downloaded about 1.7 million times in the first twenty-
the films, others more general but with extensive four hours and 6.6 million times in the first week.
sections on them. (These sites typically create links to (In comparison, the Star Wars: Episode 1: The Phantom
others when key news items appear, making it relatively Menace trailer was downloaded a million times on its
easy to stay au courant.) They reveal the masterful way first day.)23 Since then, New Line has developed the same
in which the publicity has for the most part been pattern for trailers and other types of  news.
handled. Many fans will go to considerable lengths to learn
News coverage of the films production and release the latest about the films progress, particularly if that
began in earnest in early 1999, nearly three years before access seems not to be officially sanctioned. On 30
the release of the first film and five before the third film. September 2002 the first full-length trailer for The Two
It seems likely that the producers and others with finan- Towers was made available for twenty-four hours exclu-
cial ties to the films sought to release small bits of news sively on AOL before being placed on the New Line s
at short intervals, with the occasional large revelation. LOTR site on 1 October. This was a clear-cut case of
Such a pattern would ideally maintain fan interest synergy, since New Line is a subsidiary of Warner Bros.,
during the long gaps between the interlarded releases of part of AOL Time-Warner. Several show-business and
the films and DVDs and whip up enthusiasm before Tolkien-fan Websites with access to AOL quickly
each release. Several important fan sites have cooper- posted the trailer themselves immediately, so non-AOL
ated enthusiastically with the official ones in creating users had access to copies during most of that twenty-
this cyclical pattern. New Line established its own site four-hour period. These copies could take about an hour
for the film (www.lordoftherings.net, with additional to download on a regular dial-up connection, so fans
coverage on New Line s general site, www.newline.com) had to take some trouble even for those fuzzy, jerky
quite early by industry standards, in May 1999. Internet images but, judging by the reactions immediately reg-
relations were handled by Gordon Paddison, New Line s istered on those Websites, they were getting something
senior vice-president of Worldwide Interactive Market- highly desirable ahead of its official date of availability.
ing, who not only ran the official site but cooperated (The trailer itself premiered in theaters on 4 October, a
with about forty fan sites.20 Overall, Paddison could reach date of considerably less note to site managers and fans.)
a global audience of about 65 million. At the time Tow- This sense of gaining exclusive or illicit access to pub-
ers was released, Paddison s success led to a profile in licity material crops up in the  news sections of the
Variety, which declared:  [W]hat Paddison oversees from main LOTR sites, though clearly much of the material
his L. A. office is an enormous and vocal cooperative must come from within the industry. Initially, the pro-
that has become  Rings  most formidable marketing ducers tried to keep the studio and location areas sealed
force. Most LOTR fan sites contain a link to New Line s off and secret. In 1999 Michael Regina, the main force
own site. Variety s profile of Paddison mentions the bal- behind www.theonering.net, set about getting news
ance between pleasing existing fans and creating new through the use of spies on the spot in New Zealand.
ones that I have been emphasizing:  There are global A number of other Websites tried the same thing. Some
armies of devotees who view the Tolkien epic not as a of these received  trespass notices, but New Line soon
Kristin Thompson 55
realized that controlling rather than thwarting such Such more-or-less regular and official distribution
activity would generate invaluable free publicity. Erica of information has been considerably supplemented
Challis, a New Zealander spying for Regina, was granted by several Webmasters collection and posting of small
 exclusive access to observe the shoot.24 www.theone bits of  news on a daily basis. Images are particularly
ring.net later became the site for Peter Jackson s own prized in such reports. On 13 September 2002,
fan club and, as we shall see, the home of one of the for example,  Lights Out Entertainment posted two
main ongoing polls. A representative for E!online, new images (frame grabs or, as they are known on
John Forde, was allowed  exclusively on the set and these sites,  screen shots ) from the menu of the ex-
posted regular reports as the series  Force of Hobbit: tended DVD version of Fellowship well before its No-
On Location, from 12 January 2000 to 1 December vember release.30 Around 17 September 2002
2001.25 www.theonering.net displayed four hitherto unseen
Such Internet coverage soon created a sense that fans graphics for The Two Towers, which the site managers
were glimpsing the making of the film through a virtual initially assumed to be posters but which were later
keyhole. The production process came across as small in revealed to be designs for popcorn bags.31 Also around
relation to big Hollywood shoots, as taking place in a re- 17 September 2002 a French fan site posted four new
laxed and friendly atmosphere for cast and crew alike, and  Affichettes des Deux Tours. 32 In January 2003
as happening in a beautiful and remote locale uniquely www.warofthering.net posted images from the movie
suited to being Middle-earth. Perhaps most famously, Sir tie-in calendar for The Return of the King, several months
Ian McKellen devoted part of his own Website to news before the calendar itself would be available.33 Written
about the films. At intervals from 20 August 1999 to 14 descriptions of trailers and DVD footage have also been
December 2001 he posted brief accounts of the planning, posted fairly regularly. Harry Knowles apparently was
shooting, and postproduction of the three films, ending given a copy of The Two Towers preview footage about
with the premiere of Fellowship. These were titled collec- a week before it was premiered in theaters, for he gave
tively  The Grey Book, after his character in the first a shot-by-shot description of it, complete with dia-
film. On 25 June 2002 such reports resumed, at longer logue, on his site www.aintitcoolnews.com.34 On 12
intervals, as  The White Book, named for Gandalf September 2002  Tolkien Online The One Ring
the White.26 This chatty, well-written, heavily illustrated summarized the additions to the special extended edi-
series no doubt contributed, even more than the journal- tion Fellowship DVD from a script. The same site ran a
istic coverage, to a sense of fans having access to the pro- sketchy account of the first full Towers trailer on 24
duction through one of its most prestigious participants. September 2002, a week before its Internet release.
This sense was increased by Sir Ian s  E-Post page on Authors of such articles are coy about their sources.
which he has, up to the present, answered small batches of Knowles attributes his access to the preview footage
brief fan queries at fairly frequent intervals.27 These occa- to Gandalf, while the  Tolkien Online folks write:
sionally shed light on odd changes from the book, as when  We sent a flock of Crebain from Pasadena to see what
one fan asked the obvious question as to why Gandalf news they could find of the upcoming trailer, and they
looks so messy and haggard in Fellowship. Sir Ian replied: reported back,  The trailer is AWESOME, the fans have
 Gandalf the Grey is a wanderer and survives a number of much to look forward to next week.  (Crebain are
long journeys by foot and horseback he is rarely sitting the crows that fly over the Fellowship. In the book
out of harm s way in his pony-trap. So of course he gets they are spying for Sauron; in the film, for Saruman.)
dusty and dirty, without benefit of wayside washrooms. Fans who had not even seen the trailer itself but
Haggard perhaps to look at but that doesn t stop his being only read this description of it reacted with comments
gentle or paternal when appropriate. 28 Any LOTR- that must have been gratifying to those publicizing
related additions to mckellen.com are immediately noted the film:  Oh GOD! I can hardly wait!!!! * jumps
in the news sections of the main fan sites, with links. The up and down * // OMG!!!! // Can t Wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! /
audience for mckellen.com was not restricted to existing / What a Teeeeaserrrr!!! // wooo!!!! 35 Numerous
fans; the popular press widely discussed and promoted the sites have combed the preview footage for both the
site.29 extended DVD edition of the Fellowship and the
56 Fantasy, Franchises, and Frodo Baggins
preview footage of Towers (both from the supplemen- percent), Christopher Lee (13 percent), Patrick Stewart
tal disk of the theatrical-version Fellowship DVD) and (12.5 percent), Tom Baker (8.5 percent), and Liam
posted extensive galleries of frame grabs. Neeson (8 percent). Only 400 fans participated in this
A small but fascinating part of the online publicity poll, though that number rose quickly to about 4,500
has involved polls concerning the films. Two long-run- for later ones (still of course a tiny fraction of the total
ning polls have been featured on  Tolkien Online: The number of the films fans).
One Ring and theonering.net. Both sites have archived Many fans were probably also aware from an early
their poll questions and results; these are accessible date that members of the cast and crew were themselves
through links on the home page of the sites. Both sites looking at LOTR-related Websites. On 16 June 2000
solicit suggestions for poll topics from fans, though some McKellen s E-Post contained this exchange:
questions clearly come from people connected with the
films. The topics used are often distinctly consumer-
Q: Do you and Peter Jackson ever visit Tolkien sites on
oriented ones, such as  What is your favorite feature on
the Internet?
A: I don t know where Peter gets the time but he seems
the new DVD? (11 August 2002 on theonering.net),
to be au fait with the Tolkien sites and often refers to
 Which of the following statements best describes your
them in detail. I make occasional anonymous visits and
interests in The Lord of the Rings computer games? (17
am sometimes tempted to correct the wilder specula-
June 2002,  Tolkien Online: The One Ring ), and  With
tions in the correspondence columns. Having this out-
the upcoming merchandise mania, how much money
let, I keep quiet. And so, it seems, does Peter.38
to you intend on spending on Lord of the Rings goods?
(20 August 2001,  Tolkien Online: The One Ring ).
Those running such sites could imagine the possibility
Others are idiosyncratic, diluting the commercial bent
that the filmmakers were occasionally hovering near
of the polls:  You have just received a shiny [sic] new
them in cyberspace.
kitten, and have decided to give it a Tolkien name. Which
At least some fans probably thought that the polls,
of these would you select? (16 September 2001,
particularly the one on Jackson s fan-club site, were run
theonering.net) and  Do you regard the words of the
with a thought to gathering information that would
ring poem inscribed on The One Ring as evil? (26
November 2001,  Tolkien Online: The One Ring ).36 guide decisions during the lengthy production process.
Such a belief would give a sense of fan access to and
As one might expect, the possibilities of extending
involvement in the making of the films and hence
the Middle-earth franchise beyond the three LOTR
perhaps a tolerance toward changes made in the adapta-
movies have been floated in poll questions. Early on this
tion. Certainly, some of the questions appeared to solicit
happened in general terms:  What other Tolkien story
opinions with this thought in mind:  If you had to re-
should be made into a feature film? (28 April 2000,
move a character from the movies to save time or stream-
 Tolkien Online: The One Ring ),37  How did your
line the story, who would it be? (31 October 1999,
reading of the appendices of The Lord of the Rings
theonering.net) or  Who is your ideal composer for the
affect your overall Middle-earth experience? (20 Au-
LOTR movies? (6 May 1999, theonering.net; the ulti-
gust 2001,  Tolkien Online: The One Ring ). It took
mate choice, Howard Shore, was not among the selec-
quite some time for the inevitable question to appear:
tions offered).
 After The Return of the King is released in 2003, should
Jackson has been forthright in his declaration that
The Hobbit be tackled as a live-action feature as well?
the polls and other Internet activities in fact had little
(22 July 2002,  Tolkien Online: The One Ring ). Not
effect:
surprisingly 81.34 percent thought it was a good idea.
Early fan concerns involved casting, and the first
Q: please set the record straight on one rumor: it s been
poll question to appear on theonering.net on 16
reported that there may have been moments on the
April 1999 was  What actor should play Gandalf? These
production where things were changed because of con-
polls, of course, offer a limited selection of responses
cern about fan reaction, or maybe things were floated,
to the participants. In this case, the options were Sean
reactions came in, and adjustments were made in the
Connery (35 percent),  Unknown with talent (23 film s production. is that true?
Kristin Thompson 57
A: No, not really. I can t recall any moments when that
Certainly, there was no need for the filmmakers to
happened. I certainly kept looking at the various Internet
delude fans about the effects of Internet activity; fans
sites during the shooting. It was useful to gauge how
were quite able to do that for themselves.
fans were responding to various things, especially at
Osborne s point about allowing too much informa-
moments when the trailers were released. It was inter-
tion out ahead of time was particularly tricky in
esting to see what the reactions were. I literally can t
relation to spoilers. Many fans seemed concerned that
recall a moment when we had done something and
spoilers not get out and ruin the narrative surprises for
then changed our minds just because of fan reaction.
newcomers. One issue that came up on the Internet
was the important question about how to handle Gandalf
Jackson diplomatically describes how the fan reac-
the White in the trailers and other promotional items
tion was never unified enough to lead to petitions or
for The Two Towers. Should New Line include images of
other focused efforts to influence decisions:
Gandalf the White, the enhanced incarnation of Gandalf
the Grey, resurrected after his death fighting the Balrog
We never really got hit with any concerted fan ef-
in the first film? Gandalf s return is one of the dramatic
forts about anything therefore, we never really felt a
highlights of the book, mainly because it (ideally) comes
need to change anything.
as a complete surprise. Numerous fans seem to have
I think a lot of fans would like to think that they
hoped that the secret could be kept for newcomers to
somehow influenced the film. But what I would like to
say is that they did influence the film, but not in such a
the story, though the amount of discussion of the film
direct way. It s not like we looked at something on the
and New Line s need for publicity clearly made that
Internet and we said,  That s a great idea let s do that.
impossible from the start.
They were influencing us just by their presence, just
To some extent New Line s publicists appeared to try
by the fact that they clearly loved this book, that they
to preserve the surprise of Gandalf s return or, per-
loved the project. They didn t want us to make a bad
haps more accurately, they delayed the appearance of
movie. It would have broken their hearts if the film had
spoilers. For much of 2002, summaries of Towers in maga-
been terrible, and that influence alone was enough to
zine articles concentrated on Frodo s tribulations,
make us treat the integrity of the work with a great
deal of care.39 Saruman s continued wickedness, the battle of Helm s
Deep, and the Aragorn-Arwen romance, with no men-
tion of Gandalf.41 On the other hand, the films had started
Similarly, producer Barrie Osborne has made it
with a cast of mostly unknown or little-known actors,
clear that the Internet was primarily a way of stimu-
and McKellen emerged in the wake of the first film s
lating and maintaining fan interest and enthusi-
release into considerable fame (caused also by his role in
asm:
X-Men, a film with a fan base that considerably overlaps
that of the LOTR). He was the only actor nominated
I think the internet was really good for us, in many
for an Oscar and was highly visible because of his Website.
ways. It s a hard thing because you don t really want too
He won an 18 October 1999 poll on theonering.net,
much on the net that takes away from the enjoyment
 The casting of what actor or actress pleases you the
of going to the film for the first time and seeing it re-
most? and also the 24 November 2000 poll on the
vealed before you, so it s always a fight about how much
same site,  If you could sit down and have lunch with
imagery gets let out. And a lot of stuff went out on the
net that you wish had been held back. But I think it any cast member, who would you choose? New Line
was great. Peter s a real internet fan and he s on it all the
could hardly afford to neglect him in the publicity for
time. I d go by his house early in the morning and you d
the second film. Glimpses of Gandalf the White were
see his lights on and know he s on the net or he s doing
included in the three-minute preview of Towers that was
emails at 4:30 in the morning. And I think that in-
added to the ends of Fellowship prints still in first run in
formed some of what we did. There was such a large
late March 2002. Even more footage involving him fea-
and wide fan base for the books that it was an enor-
tured in the teaser for Towers, released on 4 July, and
mous opportunity for them to express their interest in
different footage appeared in the first full-length trailer
the film and actually build the excitement toward the
release of the movie.40 (as we have seen, more or less 1 October). The silence
58 Fantasy, Franchises, and Frodo Baggins
on the return of Gandalf seems to have ended in the Bringing LOTR Home
early autumn. The September issue of the British fan
I have suggested that LOTR s appeal to young audi-
magazine Empire featured Gandalf the White on its cover
ences carried the advantage of fostering ancillary sales
with the not-particularly-reticent headline  Guess Who s
of videogames and DVDs. Such sales can create enor-
Back? In October the glossy French Premiere ran a similar
mous additional revenues and, in the case of a franchise,
image on its cover and listed Gandalf the White first
promote future films in the series. Many other tradi-
among the  new characters in Towers.42
tional products have been tied to LOTR, of course (ac-
There were sporadic fan objections to these major
tion figures, trading-card games, puzzles, replica swords,
spoilers, starting with the Towers preview footage released
and the like), but these do not reflect recent trends, and
in the spring of 2002. McKellen s E-Post dealt with one
I will not deal with them here.
such objection on 12 March:
Tolkien s novels were already popular and influential
within the world of literature when videogames were
Q: I recently read the review of The Two Towers
trailer. In it the reviewer mentions how different Gandalf developed. For example, at the Stanford Artificial Intel-
looks. If the idea is that Gandalf has died in the abyss,
ligence Laboratory (SAIL) in the 1970s, lab rooms were
showing him in the trailers totally blows that for any-
labeled with place-names from Middle-earth, and the
one who has not read the book. I know I hate it when
vending machine was dubbed The Prancing Pony. In
a preview blows a plot twist!
the Tolkienesque spirit, that lab devised Adventure (aka
A: Of course any trailer or review is likely to give
ADVENT), the precursor of elaborate fantasy games such
away secrets and spoil the surprise. But having estab-
as Myst, Quake, and Ultima (now known as  interactive
lished Gandalf s popularity in the first film it would be
fiction ).43 From early on in the fledgling technology,
a bit perverse not to herald his return, in whatever form,
in the second film. minor games based on The Hobbit and The Lord of the
Rings were devised, such as The Hobbit (1982, Melbourne
Perhaps the best indication of the promoters intention House). Many other games created similar fantasy worlds
not to conceal the return of Gandalf s return came with influenced by Middle-earth, but no major software pub-
the 29 October 2002 edition of the LOTR E-Post, where lisher took on LOTR until the New Line films were
the photograph of Gandalf the Grey that had headed about to broaden the popularity of the books.44
each posting was replaced by a new image of Gandalf On 7 December 2001 Vivendi Universal Games, a
the White. subsidiary of Vivendi Universal Publishing, announced
Most of the main fan Websites come garnished with that it has acquired licensing rights for video games based
links to sites selling LOTR-related merchandise, from on the original books. VU Games s subsidiary, Universal
amazon.com to lordoftherings.net to newline.com. Interactive, would develop three games corresponding
Indeed, information about ancillary products was regu- to the three volumes of LOTR. On 19 March 2002 VU
larly given in the news posting on most such sites. Games further announced that another subsidiary of VU
The Internet may be excellent for publicizing the Publishing, Sierra Entertainment, would develop a game
films among that portion of the audience that spends based on The Hobbit.45 The Universal Interactive s
significant time online, but ancillary products both Gameboy version of The Fellowship of the Ring game was
publicize the films and bring in additional revenues released in late October 2002, with versions for other
on a large scale. Indeed, many films derive more in- platforms following.46
come from ancillary markets than from the theatrical Universal Interactive has also tapped into the popu-
box-office. For a dignified adult film like The English larity of the films in developing new gaming technolo-
Patient that ancillary market will consist mostly of vari- gies. The Lord of the Rings is, along with World of Warcraft,
ous broadcast, cable, and video sales. A fantasy film, one of the mainstays of the company s move into the
especially as part of a franchise and even more espe- relatively recent phenomenon of MMORGs (massively
cially as part of a franchise with an existing fan base, multiplayer online role-playing games). These two
can generate enormous income from licensed mer- titles are scheduled to debut in 2004. Given the
chandise and tie-ins. fantasy-oriented nature of many computer games, it is
Kristin Thompson 59
 I don t want to do  See the movie, play the game,
not surprising that VU also recently acquired Marvel s
because we know how the movie ends, Wilson says.
entire 4,700-character library for development into
He points to  The Thing as an example of how the
MMORGs.47
approach works. The survival-horror game, which is
Somewhat confusingly, the same week that Vivendi
winning buzz in the enthusiast press, starts after the
Universal released The Fellowship of the Ring under its Black
movie ends. It functions almost like the sequel that was
Label Games subsidiary, a rival game called The Lord of the
never made, expanding fans experience of the pic.
Rings: The Two Towers appeared from one of the largest
 It s absolutely to build the franchises, to extend the
game manufacturers, EA Games (Electronic Arts); it was franchises, Wilson says.  Consumers don t want a re-
hash of a movie. Kids want a rehash, but gamers don t. 53
the first of the games created under license to New Line
and derived directly from the films. (Just as confusingly,
The Two Towers game included scenes from the first film, Given that revenue from film-related computer games
which did not have its own EA game.)48 Both games were now outstrips that from theatrical ticket sales, the games
well reviewed, but The Two Towers sold much better than its also need to introduce hard-core players to characters
rival. Indeed, on 29 January 2003 EA announced it would and narratives they may not know already, hoping to
build a large new studio in Los Angeles, reporting that it lure them away from their consoles and back into the
had nearly doubled its profits for the last quarter of 2002 movie theaters. The end of 2002 saw about 37 million
based on its movie-linked games tied to the James Bond, DVD players in use in the United States, but these were
Harry Potter, and LOTR franchises. Rumors were circu- outnumbered by the estimated 55 million DVD-
lating that EA was contemplating a buy-out of Vivendi playing video-game consoles in use. Gamers are
Universal s videogame subsidiaries, although currently it obviously a major factor in the home-video market, and
appears more likely that Microsoft will purchase these from they are often attuned to the fantasy genre.54
the ailing conglomerate.49 If, however, EA were to make New Line Home Entertainment announced the re-
this purchase, it would own both the film- and book- lease schedule for the DVDs of Fellowship on 26 March
related LOTR games. 2002. The timing was clearly carefully chosen, coming
Given the considerable technical strides made dur- two days after the Oscar presentations. If Fellowship
ing the 1990s, the new EA game was touted as highly won heavily, the boost could enhance the DVD public-
realistic and close to the film itself. The firm s studio ity, and if it lost, the interest in the DVDs could prove a
chief, Don Mattrick, declared:  We got all of Peter distraction. Given the film s four wins out of thirteen
Jackson s computer drawings and images to base our nominations, the result was perhaps a combination
work on. So you re not looking at our interpretation of of the two. New Line did not follow the common strat-
the movie, it is the movie. 50 Ads for the game empha- egy so annoying to DVD buyers of announcing an ex-
sized the film link:  Throughout your epic journey, en- tended edition crammed with special features only
joy exclusive actor interviews, scenes from the movie after the release of a regular theatrical edition. Rather,
The Two Towers, and the original score from The Fellow- the entire line-up of DVDs was announced simulta-
ship of the Ring. 51 neously.
This emphasis accords with recent trends in movie- The theatrical version was released on 6 August
based games. In the past two years or so, designers have 2002, followed by the extended cut with two discs of
tied their film-based computer games more closely to supplements and a more expensive gift-box set of the
the characters, situations, and settings of the original same material on 12 November. The theatrical version
sources. Film companies, seeing the advantages, have was accompanied by a supplementary disc that included
cooperated in many ways. For the Spider-Man game, nothing but promotional items; most tracks were
Tobey Maguire and Willem Dafoe provided the voices making-of documentaries, trailers, and ads used on tele-
for their virtual counterparts.52 In creating games based vision, in theaters, or on the Internet, while the three
on films, Universal Interactive takes this approach, try- new segments promoted the special-edition DVD,
ing to make games as much like films as possible. The the theatrical release of The Two Towers, and EA s game
company s CEO, Jim Wilson, however, wants to avoid The Two Towers. Much more elaborate extras were re-
duplicating the original plotline: served for the extended edition, which included four
60 Fantasy, Franchises, and Frodo Baggins
audio-commentary tracks and two supplementary discs sales 56.7 percent compared to theatrical gross), num-
with material on the film s production. ber 2, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer s Stone (41.3 percent),
The video release of the theatrical version of Fellow- number 4, Lilo and Stitch (56 percent), and number 6, Ice
ship spectacularly achieved the industry s hopes for high Age (44.3 percent).56 Fellowship sales figures in compari-
DVD sales in proportion to VHS sales as well as for high son with its gross rental income (which, remember, does
sales in proportion to rentals. The cost of producing not return to the studio) indicate that the film performed
DVDs is cheaper than that of VHS tapes. Moreover, much as New Line would wish. It ranked down at num-
companies do not receive royalties on individual rentals ber 19 for DVD rentals, with the percentage of income
of DVDs and tapes, only the original price paid by rental from that source a mere 6.9 percent in comparison with
shops for the videos themselves. When DVDs are sold, the theatrical gross. Among VHS rentals, Fellowship was
however, a portion of each unit s income returns to the number 26, at 9.1 percent.
manufacturer. Thus DVD sales are the preferred way of Taken along with sales versus rental figures for other
disseminating a film for home viewing. 2002 films, it becomes clear that the most popular films
Fellowship set a record, with 70 percent of units sold theatrically do not necessarily do well in rentals. As with
being DVDs. As recently as 2000, DVDs represented 7 Fellowship, people who wanted to see certain films again
and 12 percent, respectively, for the year s two best- wanted to own them. Spider-Man, the top DVD seller,
selling video titles, Tarzan and Toy Story. Contemporary was number 22 in DVD rentals, and Monsters, Inc. and
releases like Monsters, Inc., which appeared about a month Harry Potter did not even figure in the top twenty-five.
after Fellowship s theatrical version, have seen a more typi- Conversely, many of the top DVD rental titles were not
cal fifty-fifty split between DVD and cassette.55 among the most successful films of the year. Clearly, in
The video sales figures for Fellowship compared with some of these cases, spectators suspected that they would
its rental income are also revealing. In number of units enjoy watching these films once, either in a theater or
sold (12 million), it was second in 2002 releases to on video, but would not want to keep them around for
Spider-Man (12.2 million), though its revenue was the long term: number 1, Ocean s Eleven (number 11 in
distinctly higher ($257 $300,000,000 vs. $215 DVD sales), number 2, Training Day (number 15 in sales),
$300,000,000), reflecting the fact that the more expen- number 3, Don t Say a Word (not in the top twenty-five),
sive boxed-set Fellowship DVDs were counted together number 4, Mr. Deeds (number 20 in sales), number 5,
with the theatrical version. More significantly, though, The Others (not in the top twenty-five), number 6, Spy
the proportion of the total DVD sales income to the Game (not in the top twenty-five), number 7, Insomnia
total domestic theatrical box-office was 82.1 percent (not in the top twenty-five), number 8, John Q. (not in
higher than any other film in the top ten except The the top twenty-five), number 9, Panic Room (not in the
Fast and the Furious, number 8 in sales but with a DVD top twenty-five), and number 10, The Sum of All Fears
income fully 91.3 percent compared to its theatrical gross. (not in the top twenty-five). Clearly, video has brought
In contrast, a number of popular films had distinctly about a phenomenon where many spectators skip
lower earnings when compared to theatrical income: certain films in their theatrical runs and wait for the
53.3 percent for Spider Man, 52.5 percent for Harry Pot- video release. Presumably in such cases, DVD rental
ter and the Sorcerer s Stone, 47.9 percent for Star Wars,Epi- income would be relatively high in proportion to
sode 2: Attack of the Clones, and 43.5 percent for Austin theatrical box-office. Proportional figures for some films
Powers in Goldmember. Given the very high box-office in the top ten, however, suggest that many people
income for these titles, I think we can assume that most deliberately waited for the video: Training Day (39.6 per-
of the people buying the DVD had probably seen the cent of theatrical gross), Don t Say a Word (51.9 percent),
film at least once in a theater. Fellowship ranked number Spy Game (39.9 percent), and Insomnia (36.4 percent).
5 in VHS sales, with the proportion of income from this In contrast, Spider Man s DVD rentals were 5.2 percent
source being only 23.2 percent as high as the theatrical in proportion to its theatrical gross, and we have seen
gross. Perhaps not surprisingly, the highest-selling VHS that Fellowship s were also very low at 6.9 percent.57
tapes were of children s movies, probably bought for them We saw at the beginning that fantasy films feature
in most cases by parents: number 1, Monsters, Inc. (VHS prominently in the list of the top worldwide grossing
Kristin Thompson 61
films of recent years. Similarly, the best-seller list among screenplays. Toby Emmerich, president of production for
DVDs is led by seven fantasy films and children s New Line, declared,  Like Harry Potter or Lord of the
animated films. Fellowship clearly is in the forefront of Rings, it s one of those books that captures your imagi-
a trend toward fantasy films aimed toward young audi- nation and just runs with it. . . . When The Lord of the
ences inclined to buy DVDs and to continue buying Rings is over, hopefully we won t miss a beat. 62 Tolkien s
them for other entries in the same franchise.58 novel might have too much closure to become a lengthy
franchise, but New Line apparently hopes that one
fantasy series can give momentum to another and that
Conclusion: Fantasy Franchises for Young and Old
the fantasy franchise will create a major cycle for
Hollywood filmmaking runs in cycles, but clearly,
Hollywood blockbusters.
fantasy franchises feed into many modern strategies of
the big Hollywood companies. The Lord of the Rings is
NOTES
probably anomalous in that there is no other twentieth-
century fantasy novel with such a high reputation.59
Thanks to David Bordwell and my anonymous outside reader
There are some with considerable prestige, however, and
for the Velvet Light Trap for their helpful comments.
following the back-to-back successes of Harry Potter and 1. Ideally, such comparisons should be made in adjusted dollars.
A list of top-grossing films in adjusted dollars covers only domestic
Fellowship, Hollywood has not been slow to begin
income; international calculations would be prohibitively difficult.
acquiring them. Two of the most obvious British
In adjusted dollars, Spider-Man is currently number 35, Harry Potter
fantasy series with crossover child-adult appeal were
and the Sorcerer s Stone number 60, The Fellowship of the Ring number
snapped up for development. In December 2001 (the
67, and The Two Towers (sixth week of release) number 75. The top
ten are Gone with the Wind,Star Wars,The Sound of Music,E.T.,The Ten
month after Harry Potter s phenomenal success), the film
Commandments, Titanic, Jaws, Doctor Zhivago, The Exorcist, and Snow
rights for C. S. Lewis s seven-novel Chronicles of Narnia
White and the Seven Dwarves. Studio executives and the public, how-
series were purchased by Walden Media, a relatively new
ever, tend to think in terms of lists with unadjusted grosses, as these
but powerful New York production company. On 30
are widely used in the media. Figures from www.boxofficemojo.com.
September Walden announced a contract giving Disney 2. As of 2002, people with DVD players bought an average of
sixteen titles per year, compared with the annual six cassettes
a two-year first-look option on its films; there was no
purchased by VHS users in 1996. See Mike Snider,  DVDs Conquer
specific distribution contract on the Narnia series, then
the World, USA Today 18 October 2002: 7B.
in development, but the planned seven films were seen
3. For a grim but mercifully brief rundown on the genre, includ-
as one of the deal s major attractions for Disney.60
ing titles such as Zardoz and Legend, see Adam Smith,  Fantasy
Island, Empire January 2002: 70.
In September 2002 it was announced that another
4. Lev Grossman,  Feeding on Fantasy, Time 2 December 2002: 90.
prestigious author, Pulitzer Prize winner Michael
5. Dan Madsen,  Update with Peter Jackson, The Lord of the Rings
Chabon, was under contract to do the screenplay for
Fan Club Official Movie Magazine October November 2002: 29.
the second Spider-Man film. At about the same time,
6. See, for example, Kirk Honeycutt,  They Get His Vote, Holly-
wood Reporter 14 20 January 2003: S-36.
his new children s book, Summerland, appeared; he said
7.  AV Club, Onion 17 April 2002, archived www.theonionav
it was inspired by the Harry Potter series. The book is
club.com/avclub3814/avfeature_3814.html.
being published by Miramax Books, suggesting that
8. Box-office figures on Blade II from www.variety.com. Most of
Miramax Films might well pick it up as a project.
variety.com is accessible only by subscription.
Miramax Books also embarked on a series called Artemis 9. Louis Menard,  Goblin Market, New York Review 17 January
2002: 8 9.
Fowl, widely considered to be a direct imitation of the
10. The first two quotations are from the  Weta Digital section
Harry Potter books.61
(track 15) of the second supplemental disc to the special extended
On 11 February 2002, less than two months after the
edition DVD of Fellowship; the last two are from directors and writ-
release of Fellowship, New Line announced that it had
ers audio commentary on disc 2 of the film in the same edition,
during the cave troll and Balrog scenes.
optioned Philip Pullman s highly regarded three-novel
11. Quoted in Joe Fordham,  Middle-earth Strikes Back, Cinefex
series His Dark Materials (the third of which, The Amber
January 2003: 108.
Spyglass, was the first children s book ever to win Britain s
12. Mike Hodgkinson,  Elf Portrait, Arena January 2003: 150.
Whitbread Book of the Year prize). New Line soon
Bloom also compares his character to a samurai in Iain Blair,  Or-
signed British playwright Tom Stoppard to write the lando Bloom: Legolas, Total Film January 2003: 65.
62 Fantasy, Franchises, and Frodo Baggins
13. See, for example, the photo accompanying Sir Ian McKellen s 30. www.lightsoutentertainment.com
foreword to Brian Sibley s The Lord of the Rings: The Making of the 31. www.theonering.net/perl/newsview/8/1032296044
Movie Trilogy (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2002) 7. The same im- 32. www.elbakin.com/film/news/pop_180902.htm
age appears on the cover of Playworks s  64 Page Notebook, a 2002 33. These images were immediately posted on other sites. See, for
tie-in product for the film (item 116885). example,  ROTK Images-number 3, www.tolkienonline.com/docs/
14. Guy Haley and Jayne Dearsley,  101 Reasons Why You Must See 8747.html, 12 January 2003.
The Two Towers, SFX October 2002: 72; Iain Blair,  Ian McKellen: 34. Harry Knowles,  Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Special
Gandalf the White, Total Film January 2003: 56; Ian Nathan,  It Is a Preview Trailer, www.aintitcoolnews.com/display.cgi?id=11838, 25
Dark Time for the Rebellion, Empire January 2003: 104. For similar March 2002.
quotations using the word, see Richard Galpin,  Hot Thespian Ac- 35. www.tolkienonline.com/docs/7449.html. This story also pro-
tion, Arena January 2003: 142, and Christelle Laffin,   Les seigneur des vides the noms de Net of the enthusiastic fans quoted here. I do not
anneaux : La saga continue, Premiere October 2002: supplement 4. wish to imply that these reactions are unique. Numerous sites ap-
15. See especially the Gandalf cover (one of four used) of Empire pealing to fans of various genres (e.g., Hong Kong martial arts films)
January 2003. In fact, Gandalf the White s film image has nothing of have similar lists of comments with strings of exclamation marks.
the samurai about it. It apparently derives from an important figure 36. The tolkienonline.com poll seems to have been suspended
in Chinese martial arts narratives, the white-bearded monk. These sometime in late 2002, and its archive seems to be inaccessible; hence,
monks dress all in white, carry carved staffs, and are mysterious sources some of the citations here are probably outdated. Newline.com added
of wisdom and great power.  Samurai, however, would be far more its own polls in late 2002, but these do not seem to be archived.
recognizable to the broad public. (My thanks to David Bordwell for 37. The results were The Hobbit, 66.49 percent; Of the Voyage of
this information.) Eärendil, 3.83 percent; Of TÅ›rin Turambar, 12.06 percent; The Downfall
16. Nathan 104. of Nśmenor, 15.21 percent; Farmer Giles of Ham, 2.4 percent.
17. Jody Duncan,  Ring Masters, Cinefex April 2002: 95. 38. www.mckellen.com/epost/, 16 June 2000.
18. Scott Edelman,  Taken by Tolkien, Sci Fi February 2003: 6. 39. Jon B. Snyder,  Update with Peter Jackson, The Lord of the
19. Moriarty,  Moriarty s DVD Shelf! Special Edition! LOTR: Rings: Fan Club Official Movie Magazine 2 (April May 2002): 25 26.
FOTR.SE Reviewed!! www.aintitcoolnews.com/display.cgi?id=13726. 40. Bernard D. McDonald,  Barrie Osborne: The American
20. For more on this and other early Internet coverage of the Producer, Pavement December 2002 January 2003: 125.
films, see Erik Davis,  The Fellowship of the Ring, Wired October 41. See, for example, the  Fall Movie Preview: The Lord of the
2001: 119 33. Rings: The Two Towers, Entertainment Weekly, special issue (fall 2002):
21. Dana Harris,   Rings Wizard Weaves Web of Magic, Variety 80 81.
16 22 December 2002: 8. 42.The Empire cover and article were posted almost immediately
22. Davis 128. on www.warofthering.com; the cover appears in the second
23. Todd McCarthy,   Lord Rings up Internet Users, installment of  The White Book, 16 September 2002,
www.variety.com, 11 April 2000. www.mckellen.com/cinema/LOTR/wb/020916.html. The
24. Davis 127 28. Premiere cover and entire article, Christell Laffin s   Le Seigneur des
25. See www.eonline.com/Features/Specials/Lordrings/Location. anneaux : La sage continue, was posted in early October on
26. See www.mckellen.com/cinema/LOTR/.  The White Book www.elbakin.com/film/photos/imgnews/premiere_octobre.htm.
does not seem likely to be as lengthy or informative as  The Grey The magazine carried the article as a small inset supplement,
Book, since as of the end of January 2003 only two relatively short separately paginated. See also Guy Haley and Jayne Dearsley,  101
entries have been posted (25 June and 16 September 2002). Reasons Why You Must See The Two Towers, the cover story in SFX
27. One might wonder whether these communications are handled October 2002: 62 73. This article includes short segments on Sir
by a ghost writer. Given that other E-Post pages deal with Shakespeare, Ian, Gandalf the White, and Gandalf s horse, Shadowfax.
acting, X-Men, and gay issues and that they are all done in the same 43. Julian Dibbell,  Adventure, in Van Burnham, ed., Supercade: A
style, I think he does write these himself, though the more informa- Visual History of the Videogame Age 1971 1984 (Cambridge, MA:
tional areas are undoubtedly handled by the site manager. In MIT P, 1996) 135.
response to a fan s inquiry on this subject, Sir Ian gives a brief sum- 44. For a brief history of LOTR and Hobbit video games before
mary of how the Web manager winnows, categorizes, and passes the Jackson films, see Ranko  Arjuna Trifkovic,  Lord of the Rings
messages along to him to be answered; see www.mckellen.com and Video Games, www.actiontrip.com/columns/lordoftheringsand
 E-Post Bits and Bobs, 24 October 2002. videogames.phtml
28.  E-Post: The Lord of the Rings, www.mckellen.com/epost/ 45. During this period, Vivendi Universal owned Houghton
LOTR/, 5 June 2001. The fact that a fan could ask such a question Mifflin, the American publisher of Tolkien s works; on 31 December
more than six months before Fellowship s premiere suggests how VU sold Houghton Mifflin to a large investment conglomerate. See
familiar fans were with the visual material used in the extensive Meredith Amdur,  Next Chapter for VIV, Daily Variety 2 January
publicity. 2003: 1.
29. For example, it was among four Tolkien-related Websites 46. Descriptions of these divisions and archives news items cov-
described shortly after the success of Fellowship in Adam B. Vary, ering the history of these games is available at www.LOTR.com.
 Middle School, Entertainment Weekly special forecast issue (2002): 47. David Bloom,  VU Pays for Marvel Play, www.variety.com,
108. 19 September 2002.
Kristin Thompson 63
48. David Bloom,  Rival  Rings Vying for Vidgamers Fingers, video/2002/sales/, www.boxofficemojo.com/dvd/2002/rentals.htm, and
Variety 28 October 3 November 2002: 8. www.boxofficemoho.com/video/2002/rentals.htm.
49. David Bloom,  Vidgame Giant Plans L.A. Studio, 58. The extended edition DVD of Fellowship was also widely
www.variety.com, 29 January 2003. seen as setting a new standard for the inclusion of supplementary
50. N gai Croal,  Now, Video Vérité, Newsweek 3 June 2002: 43. material. It won five DVD Premiere Awards on 14 January 2003:
See also the EA representatives comments in the preview for The Best Special Edition of the Year, New Release; Best Overall New
Two Towers game included on the supplemental disk of the theatrical Extra Features, New Release; Best Enhanced or Reconstructed Movie
LOTR DVD. Scenes; Original Retrospective Documentary, New Release; and Best
51. Ad, EA, back-cover fold-out ad, Realms of Fantasy 9. 3 (Feb- Audio Commentary, New Release. Such accolades can only en-
ruary 2003); this same ad appeared in many other publications. hance the salability of the various DVDs to come. See  Middle-
52. Croal 43. earth Is on Top of the World, www.videopremiereawards.com/
53. David Bloom,  Viv U Fine-tunes Its Playbook, Variety 20 HTMLNews/.
26 May 2002: 24. The movie version of The Thing was directed by 59. Mervyn Peake s three Gormenghast novels are well respected,
John Carpenter (1982). but the BBC had already made a lavish miniseries with a stellar cast
54. Snider 7B. based on the first volume, Gormenghast, broadcast in January and
55.  DVD at Last Becomes a Family Affair, www.variety.com, February 2000. Its ratings declined precipitously after the first epi-
12 September 2002. sode, and a film adaptation seems unlikely.
56. A comparable phenomenon seems to have occurred in Brit- 60. Charles Lyons and Cathy Dunkley,  Disney Digs Walden,
ain. Fellowship was the top-selling video of 2002, with 3.9 million www.variety.com, 30 September 2002.
DVD and VHS copies sold. Harry Potter and the Philosopher s Stone 61. Dana Harris and Cathy Dunkley,  Scribe Nets Spidey Gig,
was second with 3.46 million. Fellowship led by a much higher mar- www.variety.com, 19 September 2002) Richard Lacayo,  Kids Are Us!
gin in DVD sales, with 2.36 million versus 1.25 million for Harry Time (New Zealand ed.) 9 December 2002: 58, 60.
Potter, while the latter led in VHS sales by 2.21 million to 1.57 mil- 62. Press release, ; \ Pullman s www.darkmaterials.com/adap2-
lion. See Sam Andrews,  Britain Sold on  Rings Video, Hollywood 1.htm ;  Pullman s Dark Materials made for the movies,
Reporter 7 13 January 2003: 10. www.publishingnews.co.uk/pn/pnm_movies.asp; Michael
57. All DVD and VHS rental figures not otherwise cited are from Fleming and Dana Harris,  Stoppard to Pen  Dark Materials, 
www.boxofficemojo.com/dvd/2002/sales, www.boxofficemojo.com/ www.variety.com, 16 May 2002.