#4,547 All-time worldwide

#21 1978 releases

Movie profile

The Lord of the Rings

Name: The Lord of the Rings
Genre: Adventure, Animation, Fantasy
Released: 1978-11-15
Duration: 132 min

1978 · 132 min · Fantasy Films

Adventure Animation Fantasy

IMDb View on FilmDB Where to watch

Box office snapshot

Financial performance

Reference figures based on available reported data.

Worldwide gross $30.5M

Budget $4.0M

Gross minus budget $26.5M

ROI 7.62x

Domestic gross

$13.1M

Estimated from worldwide gross

International gross

$17.4M

Estimated from worldwide gross

Opening weekend

$3.9M

Estimated from worldwide gross

Ranking context

Where The Lord of the Rings ranks

Positioned across the all-time chart, release year, studio, franchise and genre indexes where enough mapped data exists.

Open rankings

All-time worldwide #4,547 All-time chart position of 13,006 titles Compared with every rankable movie in the current worldwide dataset. 1978 releases #21 Release-year chart position of 89 titles Ranked against movies released in 1978. Studio / company #2 Fantasy Films of 2 titles Position inside the mapped Fantasy Films movie set. Primary genre #1,149 Adventure of 2,164 titles Genre context based on the first mapped genre on this profile.

Nearby worldwide ranks

Comparable titles immediately around this movie by reported worldwide gross.

#4,544 Uncommon Valor 1983 · $30.5M #4,545 From Here to Eternity 1953 · $30.5M #4,545 The New World 2005 · $30.5M #4,548 The Champ 1979 · $30.4M #4,549 What's Your Number? 2011 · $30.4M #4,550 Yentl 1983 · $30.4M

Quick answer

How did The Lord of the Rings (1978) perform at the box office?

High confidence

The Lord of the Rings (1978) earned a reported $30.5M worldwide against a reported $4.0M production budget. Its gross-minus-budget figure is about $26.5M. The current gross-to-budget multiple is 7.62x. In this database it currently ranks #4,547 in the current all-time worldwide chart set and #21 among 1978 releases.

Worldwide gross: $30,477,175
Budget: $4,000,000
Gross minus budget: $26,477,175
ROI: 7.62x

Source: Reported box office data. Last updated: Jul 8, 2026. Gross-minus-budget is not studio net profit. It excludes marketing, distribution fees, revenue splits, tax incentives and later home/streaming revenue.

Synopsis

Story

Synopsis is not available for this title yet.

Movie facts

Production details

Release date: Nov 15, 1978
Production: Fantasy Films, Bakshi Productions, Saul Zaentz Film Productions
Countries: GB, US, ES

Related indexes

Browse related box office pages

Studio / production companyFantasy Films Release year chart1978 box office Genre chartAdventure Genre chartAnimation Genre chartFantasy

JustWatch

Where to watch

Streaming availability loaded for the selected region.

View all options

Region Showing United States availability.

Rent

Buy

Availability and provider links are powered by JustWatch where available. Provider availability can change by region and date.

AI summary

Why this movie matters

Released in 1978, The Lord of the Rings is positioned in this dataset as a Adventure, Animation, Fantasy title from Fantasy Films. Its box office profile shows that available worldwide gross is $30.5M, reported production budget is $4.0M, gross-minus-budget is $26.5M, ROI is 7.62x. For comparison, it currently sits #4,547 all-time in the current chart set and #21 among 1978 releases. Streaming availability should be checked against the selected United States region because provider rights can change.

AI-generated contextual summary based on available movie, genre, ranking and box office data. It does not replace official distributor notes or financial reporting.

Data noteGross minus budget is not studio net profit. It excludes marketing, distribution fees, revenue splits, tax incentives and downstream revenue. Domestic, international and opening weekend figures marked as estimated are modelled estimates.