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"Lord of the Rings" Marathon Planned
Friday, August 22, 2003 4:17 AM EDT
Just two weeks before the December 17th release of "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King", New Line Cinema will re-release of the first two "Lord of the Rings" movies worldwide with additional scenes and footage added.
In memoranda sent to exhibitors on Wednesday, New Line laid out a game plan to promote the third film by refreshing filmgoers' memories with "The Fellowship of the Ring" and "The Two Towers".
The plan calls for putting the films on 100-150 screens in top 10 U.S. markets. Many other U.S. cities will have one cinema participating in the special extended edition screenings. Running times for the extended editions are 208 minutes for "Fellowship of the Ring" and 214 minutes for "The Two Towers".
Advanced ticket sales are scheduled to begin in late September or early October on exhibitor Web sites and movie ticketing sites like Fandango, MovieFone and Movietickets.com.
The cost, one New Line insider estimated, will be between $10 million and $15 million. Due to the extended length of the new prints, the move is being cast as a promotional tool rather than a moneymaker.
Starting the week of December 5th, the extended DVD cut of "Fellowship of the Ring" will be released in some 100 or so theaters in the U.S. and in 20 theaters in Canada.
Then, the week of December 12th, sequel "The Two Towers" will unspool, leading up to a worldwide December 16th daylong marathon, during which all three films will be shown back-to-back. Guidelines call for a 3 p.m. showing of "Fellowship" followed by a 7 p.m. screening of "Two Towers" and then an 11 p.m. screening of "Return of the King", which will carry over into December 17th -- the day of its global release.
Overseas, it's not yet clear whether all exhibs will be showing the new footage-added prints. The decision is being left to exhibitors, which will make their requests known to New Line in the next few weeks.
Source: Variety
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