The War Of The Rohirrim’s Budget Is Lower Than You Likely Think

We live in an era of expensive entertainment. It recently came out that Disney dropped over $269 million on its live-action “Snow White” and pumped $150 million into the animated sequel “Moana 2.” Big budgets aren’t a luxurious habit reserved for the House of Mouse, either. “Gladiator II” had a reported budget of nearly $310 million, and if you wander outside of the full-length movie format, Prime Video famously dropped an eye-watering $465 million on the first season of “The Rings of Power.” It’s a huge sum (even if co-creator JD Payne thinks it’s a bargain).

In light of all of these massive monetary infusions, one would expect any new project to have a healthy funding lifeline, especially if it’s a Middle-earth IP. This includes Warner Bros.’ “The Two Towers” prequel “The War of the Rohirrim.” However, the new movie actually has a humble budget. According to figures reported by Variety, “War of the Rohirrim” was made for just $30 million. Yep. We have a full-scale, Peter Jackson-backed theatrical release that rang in at less than a tenth of the cost of “Gladiator II.”

Of course, there are a few obvious reasons for the lower price tag, the simple fact the film was created in a traditional anime format being one of them. While a time-consuming labor of love, drawn depictions of Middle-earth don’t come with the hefty price tag of massive sets, countless props, and pricey live-action computer-generated graphics. The movie also featured a small cast with a handful of well-known actors, which can help keep the payroll down.

Still, the impressively low sum is low enough to set the movie up for relative financial success no matter how it does or doesn’t perform at the box office. While theaters still need to get their cut, it will be very easy for this one to reach the break-even point even with modest interest (which the Jackson/Tolkien combo is bound to attract).

Despite the obvious reasons for the lower production costs, it’s still impressive to see what “War of the Rohirrim” accomplishes with such a small budget. It is over two hours long and features plenty of huge battles and complex visual sequences. It also tells a complete story and has cameos from major “Lord of the Rings” alumni, including Miranda Otto, Dominic Monaghan, and Billy Boyd (who play Éowyn, Merry Brandybuck, and Pippin Took, respectively, in the “Lord of the Rings” films). All said and told, the movie manages to channel the grandness of Middle-earth in a completely new setting and medium.

As far as the profitability of the project is concerned, Variety also pointed out that “War of the Rohirrim” wasn’t ever meant to be a massive money maker. On the contrary, with the “Hobbit” trilogy almost a decade in the rearview mirror, New Line Cinema needed to get something in the pipeline to avoid losing the film adaptation rights to Tolkien’s books.

The bigger, more profitable projects are coming, though, with the highly anticipated live-action “The Hunt for Gollum” movie arriving first in 2026 and other projects planned (but not yet revealed) beyond that. In the end, “War of the Rohirrim” is a safe bet that is getting the job done by warming up crowds to the Jacksonian Middle-earth experience again and paving the way for movies to come that will likely cause more hype, draw bigger crowds, and most certainly be more expensive.

“The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim” is now playing in theaters.