Who Owns The Lord of the Rings?

🔵 𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗣𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝘅 𝗼𝗻 𝗣𝗮𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗯𝗼𝗻𝘂𝘀 𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗼𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲:   / pentexproductions   🔵

Who owns the Lord of the Rings? Amazon with their Rings of Power? Peter Jackson with the Warner Bros LOTR trilogy? The Tolkien Estate? What about LOTR games like Gollum and Return to Moria? LOTR board games like War of the Ring? Will there be a Silmarillion movie? What’s all this about the Embracer Group?

Well, the answer to all this is complicated.

So come with me on an adventure into the wild world of film rights, licencing agreements, and lots and lots of legal challenges as the War for the Rights to The Lord of the Rings carries ever on and on…..

00:00 – Concerning Hobbits – JRR Tolkien, HarperCollins, and United Artists
02:13 – A Journey in the Dark – Saul Zaentz, Ralph Bakshi and Rankin/Bass
05:03 – The Ring Goes South – Peter Jackson, Miramax and New Line Cinema
07:06 – The Gathering of the Clouds – The Hobbit, Warner Brothers, and the LOTR game lawsuit
10:05 – A Long-Expected Party – Amazon and The Rings of Power
12:02 – Ever on and on – Embracer Group and the status quo

Pentex’s Lord of the Rings video essays playlist:    • Lord of the Rings video essays  

The Scouting of the Shire (How the Hobbiton Movie Set was Built):    • The Scouting of the Shire: How HOBBIT...  
The Russian Lord of the Rings Movie is Weirder Than You Think:    • The Russian Lord of the Rings is Weir...  
The Russian Hobbit Movie is Weirder Than You Think:    • The Russian Hobbit Movie is Weirder T...  

Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/PentexP

MUSIC

Early Avril, Unicorn Heads, Youtube Music Library
Icelandic Arpeggios, DivKid, Youtube Music Library
“Tranquil Fields” by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
"Half Mystery" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
“Straight” https://www.bensound.com/free-music-f...
Rolling Hills, Sir Cubsworth, Youtube Music Library

SOURCES (Video)

Lindsay Ellis, The Battle of the Five Studios:    • The Hobbit: Battle of Five Studios (P...  

Folding Ideas, A Exhaustive History of Ralph Bakshi’s Lord of the Rings:    • An Exhaustive History of Ralph Bakshi...  

Shadowman, Evolution of the Lord of the Rings Games (1982-2019):    • EVOLUTION OF LORD OF THE RINGS GAMES ...  

John Boorman’s LOTR screenplay:   / john_boormans_infamous_the_lord_of_the_rings  

SOURCES (Research)

Overviews
https://www.middleearth.com/history.html
https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/...

Rankin/Bass and Bakshi:
https://www.nytimes.com/1977/11/27/ar...
https://www.nytimes.com/1978/11/08/ar...

LOTR public domain:
https://law.marquette.edu/facultyblog...

Tolkien Estate vs New Line and historical context:
http://www.theonering.net/torwp/2008/...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/200...
Tolkien vs New Line: https://variety.com/2008/biz/features...

Hobbit drama:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB107663...
Warner Bros vs Tolkien Estate (gaming rights): https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/bus...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/03/mo...
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/bus...

LOTR rights sale by Saul Zaentz Company
https://variety.com/2022/film/news/lo...
https://variety.com/2022/film/news/lo...

Amazon:
https://deadline.com/2017/11/amazon-t...
https://www.businessinsider.com/amazo...

Embracer Group:
https://www.polygon.com/23311153/the-...
https://embracer.com/release/embracer...