As you will recall we teamed up with our friends at HarperCollins to give away a signed copy of this fantastic set of books covering the amazing work by the great folks at Weta Workshop & Weta Digital.
After going through all the submissions picking one person was a tough choice, but one very lucky fan of the talent in New Zealand is about to be very happy.
We are pleased to announce that Megan C. of Gallup New Mexico will be the lucky fan to recieve The Art of Film Magic – 20 Years of Weta from HarperCollins. We will be passing along your information and you should have your gift coming soon.
Thanks to HarperCollins for teaming up with us and all of you who took the time to enter.
Join us in Los Angeles in February at The One Last Party
We’re hosting a Party of Special Magnificence next February — a toast to all SIX movies, both LOTR trilogy and The Hobbit.
We have many supporters who are not able to attend the party, but have chosen to make a pledge to help make this party happen. And for that, we are deeply honored and grateful. Please continue to spread the word amongst your family and friends so that we can all make a proper send off to Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth cycle of films.
For the rest of you, we have a party to plan, and you have travel arrangements to make, unless you are a local. Oscar weekend in Hollywood can be a bit stressful and expensive, so here are a few suggestions to make things easy for you.
First off, as of the date of this update, we don’t have the venue locked in simply because we need a funded budget in order to put the deposit down on the venue. That being said, the venues being looked at are very near each other and very near several hotels, so there is a hotel list coming up shortly.
Secondly, while it is recommended that you make your hotel reservations now, we would advise against anything requiring pre-payment, both in hotels or flights, until our goal is met and we know the party will happen. As much as we all want this party to happen, it can only do so if the budgeted goal is met, and we just don’t want you to risk your hard earned money on non-refundable travel purchases. So reserve a hotel, but think long and hard before booking non-refundable flights.
Thirdly, as the Travel Agent on staff, all the hotels and motels listed below I have either stayed in, toured, had friends stay in or I have met the sales representatives and can recommend these to you. They vary in prices, and even the normally budget conscious properties may seem a little high, just know that Oscar weekend is a high occupancy weekend in Hollywood and the pricing reflects the demand.
Our One Last Party fundraiser on Indiegogo has just hit the $100K mark and we’re pretty stoked!
If you’d like to join us as a Party of Special Magnificence in Hollywood in February — a toast to all SIX Middle-earth movies, then now is the time to throw in your support! Even if you can’t make it to Hollywood (or if you’ve already contributed), you can help out by retweeting or sharing our fundraiser across social media to get the word out.
One Dragon, One Party menu signed by Dean O’Gorman, Craig Parker and Adam Brown
We ran a simple lottery for a nifty little prize in the form of a Menu from last year’s One Dragon, One Party signed by several cast members. The contest is now over and we have ourselves a very surprised and happy fan in Texas by the name of Susan H. The nice thing is, she does not have to wait to see if the campaign will be successful, she will be receiving this signed item in the next few days.
We have other really cool items already in the campaign, as well as new ones coming up to add to the campaign as either Perks for specific pledge levels, or other Lottery prizes. We may even do something extra special just for the Professor’s Birthday this weekend. And if you are unable to join us at the party, please don’t despair, we have now added a perk specifically for a Live Stream from the party.
Join us in Los Angeles in February at The One Last Party
We’re hosting a Party of Special Magnificence next February — a toast to all SIX movies, both LOTR trilogy and The Hobbit. We’ve hit and surpassed the 50% mark of our funding goal and there’s 18 days to go. Even if you can’t make it to Hollywood, there are still ways to help out if you’re keen, and some neat perks you can pick up too!
We at TheOneRing.net want you all to join us in saying a proper ‘Fond Farewell’ and heartfelt ‘Thank You’ to all the hard working Cast and Crew of all six of the Middle-earth films. There will be a giant ‘Thank You’ card at our planned “The One Last party: There and Back Again” event on February 21, 2015 in Hollywood. We’ve done this before, back at the Return of the One Party in 2004, so we know how to do big cards.
Now we know that not everyone can join us at ‘The One Last Party” so we have a special Perk on our Indiegogo campaign just for you. In fact, every single Perk level includes your name on the card, but we did create the lowest level Perk just for those who can’t attend, but would like to be included in this special ‘one of a kind’ Thank you greeting. The images here are from 2004, but they give you an idea of what to expect from this year’s Epic card. And for those who do attend the party, you will have the opportunity to personalize your greeting a little bit more at the party. This ‘Thank You’ card will either be given to, or sent down to New Zealand to be delivered to Peter Jackson.
For the past decade and a half, Peter Jackson, his amazing cast and the equally amazing crew have handcrafted these magnificent cinematic representations of Middle-earth for all of us to enjoy. Along the way, we have created a vibrant fan community where we can be found chatting on the message boards, meeting up at theater Line Parties, attending conventions together, making pilgrimages to New Zealand, and attending Oscar parties. We are a very social fandom who celebrates both the creative and academic side of Middle-earth, where you can find people displaying amazing costume designs right next to people who can recite and translate all of Tolkien’s Elvish poetry, and each can call the other ‘friend’. So while we want to thank Peter and the rest of the cast and crew for making films we can all enjoy, we especially want to thank them for the much more important Fan Community that has been thriving in big cities and tiny little towns all around the world since 2001.
Please join us in sending out our thanks by supporting our campaign for The One Last Party: There and Back Again, or sharing it far and wide with all your friends and family. Let’s all enjoy each other’s company #OneLastTime.
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Join us in Los Angeles in February at The One Last Party
We’re hosting a Party of Special Magnificence next February — a toast to all SIX movies, both LOTR trilogy and The Hobbit.
The marketing campaign of #OneLastTime for “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies,” might have been a little short-sighted as now that most readers of TheOneRing.net and other rabid Tolkien fans have seen the film (sorry Australia friends, paddle over to New Zealand) studios are probably thinking they should have gone with #OneDozenMoreTimes.
But the Sting can’t be too great, because the film is creating liquid gold that is flowing from consumers around the world. Rentrack, that tracks such things, shows that it has a robust domestic box office, so the little film from New Zealand has earned $90 million in Yankee coin. That is a more than solid five-day total and while it could have optimally earned closer to $100 million, that number is far from disappointing. In fact, the studios should use it to pour a floor like the one in Thorin’s hall of madness to, you know, impress the other studios.
The film has such white-hot, world-wide appeal however, that unlike some films that rely on U.S. consumers, this film hardly needs them in its march to $1 billion. Now, to be clear, that billion with a “B” sounds pretty nice but should the movie “only” make, say $900 million, all but inevitable now, that is still a pretty incredible figure. Our consumer brains like to hear the “B,” but the movie is a hit either way and don’t let anybody tell you otherwise.
Globally, it is on fire, doing great business in virtually every territory, sucking up a figure of $265 million since its open. Both the previous Hobbit movies earned more than $700 million internationally and this film is ahead of those in virtually every market. Domestic tracking would put it at $250 million plus for a conservative total of $950 million. My gut tells me the sentimental “last chance for Middle-earth in the theater” (you are welcome movie studio marketing departments) will give this film a little extra run. So the real question is: Will the Hobbit make more than the last Transformers movie? That shows at Boxofficemojo.com with a total of $1.08 billion. One of those two films is destined to be the biggest financially of the year. I generally dislike movie vs. movie comparisons, but I am both cheering for WB’s fantasy flick and against Michael Bay’s painful, loud snooze fest.
TOTALS: Domestic: $ 90.6 million + International: $265 million = Total worldwide: $355.6 million.
It is funny how big hits like “Guardians of the Galaxy,” and “The Lego Movie,” both fall well short of that $1 billion mark and are praised as giant successes — which they are. But, anybody remember some of the negative buzz with last year’s “Desolation of Smaug” being “disappointing?” It only made $958 million. Before that, some folks tried to say “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” was “doomed to failure” and then when it obviously wasn’t doomed or a failure, it was then termed as “not quite so bad, but still has no shot at $1 billion.”
First, that is just an arbitrary mark that looks good on a resume but it did cross that arbitrary mark despite the cries of “failure.” Bad buzz, even when it is fake, can hurt the box office. I got mad and wrote Death of ‘Hobbit’ at box office greatly exaggerated. I will not lie, punching holes in absurd journalism made it one of my favorite pieces I have ever put together for TORn. Also, it is relevant to how BOTFA is kicking some trash. So yeah, I had to link to it #OneLastTime.
Guardians will out-earn Hobbit in the U.S., but can’t touch it internationally. Marvel/Disney’s world-wide total will be approximately the same as Hobbit’s international-only money. Warners could have let everybody in the U.S. watch it for free and it would have earned the same as Guardians. #NotAFailure
The latest Hunger Games flick, “Mockingjay: Part 1,” is sitting around $640 million for its world total. Great numbers, but not Hobbit numbers. And Lego, as great a success as it is (and a great movie), isn’t half Hobbit 3’s final — even with Gandalf in it. In fact BOTFA is closing in on it fast.
BONUS TEASERS: While we are here, I will take a second to tease a pretty incredible Ian McKellen interview coming in the next day or so. That sounds immodest of me to say since it is my piece, but it is the journalist getting out of the way and letting Sir Ian talk. I really think it will connect with readers. He spoke at length about a lot of things including who else he thinks could have played Gandalf in The Hobbit films if he decided not to return. We also have some exclusive set photos of Peter Jackson coming in a day or two, one of which I included here in a small version. And if you haven’t heard, we are throwing a party! Details below.
As you will recall we teamed up with our friends at HarperCollins to give away a signed copy of this fantastic set of books covering the amazing work by the great folks at Weta Workshop & Weta Digital.
We’re hosting a Party of Special Magnificence next February — a toast to all SIX movies, both LOTR trilogy and The Hobbit.
Stuff.co.nz has this nice little piece about Peter Jackson, including his cameo in The Hobbit: the Battle of the Five Armies. 
