Brandon Gray – BoxOfficeMojo.com

‘The Two Towers’ is estimated to have taken in a whopping $27-28 million at 3,622 theaters and an estimated 6,500 screens on Wednesday. That shatters the $18.2 million December opening day record that ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’ posted last year at 3,359 venues and around 5,700 screens. It also stands as the sixth biggest opening day ever: Opening Day Chart. The estimate is based on the $21.8 million it generated at 2,526 theaters reporting to Nielsen EDI, the firm that tabulates over 80% of theaters’ box office revenue for the industry. The actual number will be posted at the site at around noon Pacific time in the daily section.

According to a Salt Lake City newspaper TORnados really know how to line party. Here is a report that chronicles the exclusive Salt Lake City TORnsibs only event! [More]

We just got a report from Ringer Miller that the estimated first day earnings of The Two Towers in US theaters is $27.3 million. Not to shabby! According to our friend Brandon Gray at Boxofficemojo.com, that places TTT at 2nd place in all-time Wednesday release earnings, behind SW EPI. [More]

CNN reports: Two movies going head to head at the box office this week are also up against each other for top honors in the Golden Globe awards. “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” and “Gangs of New York” were both nominated for best motion picture drama in a ceremony Thursday morning in Los Angeles. [More]

The entire list of nominations is coming soon!

This website has gone into ‘stunned recovery’ mode for most of the day, so it’s time for an editorial. How are we, the online Tolkien fan community, feeling today? [More]

It’s the morning after the night when many Tolkien fans throughout the world lined up for our first look at The Two Towers. So how are we all feeling?
Relief. What a relief. We’ve seen it, at last, after so many months and years of waiting, and generally the impression I’m getting is that people are very happy with the movie, and it was worth the wait. People are shaken and moved by it – it’s not a happy movie, but it’s done with a passionate sense of purpose and dedication. Whatever quibbles we might have with some details, the overall sense is that it is a great work. ‘Overall sense’ is right, because most people are saying that they have to see it again, they need time to digest it and understand it. I think that FOTR taught us that we have to see Peter Jackson’s Rings movies in a new way. You don’t swallow them at a gulp. I doubt many people could get much out of seeing TTT if they hadn’t seen FOTR and didn’t know the books at all. It demands your concentration. I’m reminded of Wagner’s Ring cycle, not because it’s about a Ring nor because the story takes place over 4 operas, but because the story is told in such a complex, layered way, relying on words, on melody, on leitmotifs that you must memorise and on action. Most Wagner opera buffs do a great deal of background reading and listening so that when they finally see it staged, they’ll appreciate the totality of it. Peter Jackson’s Rings movies are like that. We won’t know how we feel about TTT until we’ve seen it a few more times and thought about it some more. Interestingly enough, there were many scenes in TTT where I found myself thinking ‘oh, this is a bit rushed but I bet it’ll all come clear in the extended DVD.’ So we’ve learned to wait and trust a little more, since last year, because it turned out that there was so much more of the story that we KNEW, waiting for us on the extended DVD.

I’m churning my way through the reviews that are being sent in to the site – part of a long process that will go on for months. Hundreds have come in so far and the response is very positive. People are excited and awed, and list dozens of scenes that they thought were perfect or amazing. There’s a lot of agreement that the changes to Faramir’s character don’t really appeal though, and the scenes with the Ents seem rushed so that their story with Merry and Pippin doesn’t develop in a realistic way. Other changes such as the scenes with Arwen have been widely accepted and enjoyed. Almost everyone raves about Gollum and the battle of Helm’s Deep, and they love all the things they loved about the last movie – the epic sweep, the grand landscapes and so on.

This morning the website seems to have closed shop after posting a bunch of reviews and an update – we’re all presumably catching up on sleep or wading through today’s email, which has doubled from the usual spate into something that feels like one of those flattening waves known as ‘dumpers.’ I feel we owe our readers and our correspondents an apology. We used to pride ourselves on answering every single email, even if it was just a simple thank-you note. Now it just isn’t always possible, though we continue to try. So I apologise to any of you that the pressure of time has forced us to neglect.

It has been a great pleasure to share the long wait for these movies with so many ardent fans. I hope we have a great time waiting for the last movie, and that we have much to celebrate in the year to come.