Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring becomes the second-highest grossing film in Canadian history

ALLIANCE ATLANTIS’ theatrical release of THE LORD OF THE RINGS: FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING records $50.2 million dollars of box office sales in Canada to date

TORONTO, March 22 /CNW/ – The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring has grossed $50.2 million in theatres across Canada since its debut on December 19th, making it the second-highest grossing film of all time in Canada surpassed only by Titanic, confirmed Alliance Atlantis’s Motion Picture Distribution Group.

“The Canadian box office results represent an astounding 17% of the cumulative North American box office to date. Not only is it the most successful film ever distributed by Alliance Atlantis, it’s also a significant endorsement of the marketing and distribution strategy we deployed that was tailored to the Canadian market,” noted Victor Loewy, CEO of the Company’s Motion Picture Distribution Group.

The success of the theatrical release of The Lord of the Rings is especially gratifying because it bodes well for the anticipated results of the remaining two segments of the trilogy (The Two Towers and The Return of the King), set to be released December 2002 and 2003 respectively. This impressive box office performance also speaks to a strong release for video and DVD products beginning this fall, Loewy added. “Overall, we are well positioned to sustain this momentum well into 2004.”

New footage in theatres

The filmmakers have also added three-minutes of footage from The Two Towers to the last reel of The Fellowship of the Ring. This never-before-seen footage will be released in theatres on March 29th and should whet fans’ appetites for more while intensifying anticipation for The Two Towers, set for a December 18, 2002 release.

Ringer Spy Quinn sends along along this scan about the National Board of Review Awards Gala in New York City, which Ian McKellen (Gandalf) and Cate Blanchett (Galadriel) attended. [More]

Ringer Spy Cheryl writes: …imagine my surprise when my friend came home with pictures of Lawrence Makoare (Lurtz) in London! [More]

Some people emailed me telling the rumour goes that the LA tv-station Channel 2 will be previewing the new trailer for Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers this friday. People who happen to know more about this or get the chance to see it; let us know!

Well, life is unfair sometimes. I’m sitting here waiting untill april 5th before I can see the trailer and then I get this email from Isaac, who writes:

Hello, I live in Lawrence, Kansas and I thought you would want to know that the new reel got in on the 23rd.

Well, you gotta love the internet. After mentioning it just an hour ago I already have confirmation about the trailer in Holland. It seems Holland is not as fortunate as the rest of the world; the trailer won’t be shown there untill the 5th of april, so that’s a week after the rest of the world… Thanks to Mirjam and Eowyn of Ithilien for that! More info about can be found at Dutch community site TheFellowship.nl.