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The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
2003
 201 minutes (3 hrs 21 mins)

Production Country

New Zealand • United States

Director and Cast Quickview

Release dates

US release date US release: 17th December 2003
Austria release date Austria release: 17th December 2003
Belgium release date Belgium release: 17th December 2003

Box Office Quickview

UK box office

  • Debut box office: 19th Dec '03
  • Debut position: 1
  • Highest position: 1
  • Debut gross: £15 Million
  • Total chart weeks: 19

US box office

  • Box Office debut: 19th Dec '03
  • Debut position: 1
  • Highest position: 1
  • Debut gross: $124.1 Million
  • Total chart weeks: 25

WorldWide box office

  • Box Office debut: 19th Dec '03
  • Debut position: 2
  • Highest position: 1
  • Debut gross: $232.9 Million
  • Total weeks on top 15: 26

Chart position history

UK box office

19 Dec, 2003
1
26 Dec, 2003
1
2 Jan, 2004
1
9 Jan, 2004
1
16 Jan, 2004
1
23 Jan, 2004
2
30 Jan, 2004
3
6 Feb, 2004
5
13 Feb, 2004
7
20 Feb, 2004
8
27 Feb, 2004
9
5 Mar, 2004
10
12 Mar, 2004
11
19 Mar, 2004
13
24 Jul, 2020
15
4 Jun, 2021
13
30 Jan, 2026
14

US box office

19 Dec, 2003
1
26 Dec, 2003
1
2 Jan, 2004
1
9 Jan, 2004
1
16 Jan, 2004
3
23 Jan, 2004
5
30 Jan, 2004
4
6 Feb, 2004
7
13 Feb, 2004
8
20 Feb, 2004
10
27 Feb, 2004
11
5 Mar, 2004
7
12 Mar, 2004
9
19 Mar, 2004
11
26 Mar, 2004
15
16 Jan, 2026
12
23 Jan, 2026
10

Global box office

19 Dec, 2003
1
19 Dec, 2003
2
26 Dec, 2003
1
2 Jan, 2004
1
9 Jan, 2004
1
16 Jan, 2004
1
23 Jan, 2004
1
30 Jan, 2004
1
6 Feb, 2004
1
13 Feb, 2004
1
20 Feb, 2004
1
27 Feb, 2004
2
5 Mar, 2004
1
12 Mar, 2004
1
19 Mar, 2004
2
26 Mar, 2004
2
2 Apr, 2004
4
9 Apr, 2004
5
16 Apr, 2004
5
23 Apr, 2004
2
24 Dec, 2004
1
14 May, 2021
7

Other movies in this series

Certificates

US
PG-13

12

K-12

12

G

T

Total grosses

UK total gross
United Kingdom Flag  £61 Million
US total gross
United States Flag  $387 Million
Global total gross
Global Flag  $1.1 Billion

25thframe.co.uk stats

Total views:
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First viewed:
15th Dec 2025
Last viewed:
11th Feb 2026
SELECT * FROM `news` WHERE `story` LIKE '%The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King%' ORDER BY `date` DESC LIMIT 5
News from around the web

As January comes to a close with no major new releases coming to cinemas the heavily Oscar nominated Hamnet swaps places with The House Maid~2025 to climb to number 1.

The movie takes nearly £1.4 Million this weekend, its 4th weekend of release, and has a total gross of nearly £15 Million.

Highest new movie of the weekend is Shelter~2026 starring Jason Statham which makes its debut on the box office with a shade under £1 Million.

UK box office QuickView

  • Number 1 - Hamnet (1st Weekend)
  • Highest debut - Shelter~2026 (@3)
  • Longest run - Zootopia 2 (10 weeks)
  • Highest total gross - Avatar: Fire and Ash (£41,299,900)
  • Best Percentage change week on week - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (86%)
  • Total UK top 15 this weekend - £10,157,692
  • Also new this weekend
    • Primate
    • Is This Thing On?
    • Kangaroo
  • Check out the full UK box office.

UK weekend box office top 5 breakdown 30th - 1st February 2026

Hamnet

  • The movie goes up the chart to number 1 on this weeks UK box office
  • It has spent 1 weeks at the top of the UK box office.
  • It grosses £1,412,612 over the weekend, a 28% drop from last weekend
  • It has a total gross of £14,841,238 over 4 weeks of release
  • It is the 11th top debuting movie in the month of January
  • The movie is the 3rd top grossing film so far in 2026

The Housemaid~2025

  • The movie goes down the chart to number 2 on this weeks UK box office
  • It grosses £1,399,261 over the weekend, a 31% drop from last weekend
  • It has a total gross of £28,480,667 over 6 weeks of release
  • The movie is the top grossing film so far in 2026

Shelter~2026

Highest new movie this weekend

  • The movie is the Highest debut on this weeks UK box office chart.
  • It grosses £964,903 over its debut weekend
  • The movie is the 13th top grossing film so far in 2026

Iron Lung

  • The movie is a new entry at number 4 on this weeks UK box office
  • It grosses £948,731 over its debut weekend
  • The movie is the 14th top grossing film so far in 2026

Zootopia 2

  • The movie remains at number 5 on this weeks UK box office
  • It grosses £855,208 over the weekend, a 17% drop from last weekend
  • It has a total gross of £32,609,792 over 10 weeks of release
  • The movie is the 5th top grossing film so far in 2026
  • The movie is a sequel to Zootopia which took £23,461,047 at the box office after 10 weeks in cinemas.

The Avatar series continues to show strength as the third movie in the series Avatar: Fire and Ash spends its fifth weekend at the top of the North American box office.

The movie has now taken nearly $365 Million which although well behind the previous movie in the series is still a massive box office gross in the current cinema climate.

Top new movie is the weekend is 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple which lands at number 2 this week with just over $12.5 Million.

This is disappointingly half that of the previous movie despite positive word of mouth and critics reviews.

US Box Office QuickView

  • Number 1 - Avatar: Fire and Ash (5th Weekend)
  • Highest debut - 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (@2)
  • Longest run - The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (40 weeks)
  • Highest total gross - Zootopia 2 ($390,413,294)
  • Best Percentage change week on week - No Other Choice (38%)
  • Total US top 15 this weekend - $85,532,271
  • Also new this weekend
    • The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
    • The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
    • The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
  • Check out the full US box office.

US weekend box office top 5 breakdown 16th - 18th January 2026

Avatar: Fire and Ash

  • The movie remains at number 1 on this weekends US box office
  • It has spent 5 weeks at the top of the US box office.
  • It grosses $14,489,184 over the weekend, a 33% drop from last weekend
  • It has a total gross of $364,699,524 after 5 weekends of release
  • The movie is the top grossing film so far in 2026
  • The movie is a sequel to Avatar: The Way of Water which took $562,919,348 at the box office after 5 weekends of release.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple

Highest new movie this weekend

  • The movie is the Highest debut on this weekends US box office chart.
  • It has a total gross of $12,521,327 after 1 weekends of release
  • The movie is the 11th top grossing film so far in 2026
  • The movie is a sequel to 28 Years Later which took $30,002,966 at the box office after 1 weekends of release.

Zootopia 2

  • The movie goes up the chart to number 3 on this weekends US box office
  • It grosses $9,171,087 over the weekend, a 8% drop from last weekend
  • It has a total gross of $390,413,294 after 8 weekends of release
  • The movie is the 2nd top grossing film so far in 2026
  • The movie is a sequel to Zootopia which took $316,404,151 at the box office after 8 weekends of release.

The Housemaid~2025

  • The movie goes down the chart to number 4 on this weekends US box office
  • It grosses $8,543,288 over the weekend, a 22% drop from last weekend
  • It has a total gross of $107,169,352 after 5 weekends of release
  • The movie is the 3rd top grossing film so far in 2026

Marty Supreme

  • The movie goes up the chart to number 5 on this weekends US box office
  • It grosses $5,477,927 over the weekend, a 28% drop from last weekend
  • It has a total gross of $79,653,221 after 5 weekends of release
  • The movie is the 4th top grossing film so far in 2026

Disney's sequel movie Frozen II makes its UK box office debut at the top knocking last weeks top film, Last Christmas, into second place, while Blue Story makes an impressive start to its box office run at number 3.

Frozen II

Disney bring to the screen the follow up to 2013's Frozen which opened to £4.7 Million, the new movie opens to £15..08 million which is the biggest opening weekend for an animated movie in the UK beating Pixar's Toy Story 4 from earlier in the year.

To be fair the first movie did the hard work and built up the kind of following that meant the sequel was always going to hit big on its release.

Frozen went on to gross £43 Million during its total run and there is no reason why this movie will not match, if not exceed that films total.

The films £15 Million opening is the 28th highest ever in the UK, ahead of 2003's The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King and behind 2016's Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them.

Last Christmas

Last week number 1 debut movie falls to number 2 this week with £2.2 Million which considering the negative reviews is still good.

The total gross sits at £6.7 Million after 2 weeks of release.

Blue Story

Director Andrew Onwubolu marks his debut with this gritty gangland drama set in London which makes is debut at number 3 with an incredible £1.3 Million from just 310 cinemas.

Le Mans '66

The racing drama starring Matt Damon and Christian Bale falls to 4 this week with £1.1 Million pushing its total to £4.2 Million after 2 weeks.

21 Bridges

Chadwick Boseman stars in this action film set in New York, it is directed by Brian Kirk and makes its UK box office debut at 5 with £655,213.

Joker

Warner Bros. DC villain movie continues to do well in the UK as it spends its 8th weekend on the chart with a total gross of £57 Million.

This week marks a bit of a mile stone in film global grosses, Despicable Me 3 goes over $1 billion, the first of the series to do so, this means now the top 30 top global grossing movies have all grossed over $1 Billion.

The first movie to do so was Titanic back in 1998 and was the only film to do so for a long time, that film had another bite of the cherry in 2012 and its gross is now over $2 billion.

The next film to do it was The Lord of The Rings: The Return of The King in 2003, since then we have had at least one film a year do the fate.

The oldest film to go over $1 Billion is Jurassic Park from 1993, but again that had another go in 2011 which pushed it over the mark, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace similarly did the same.

To date only 3 film have gone to $2 Billion, Avatar (the top grossing movie of all time), Titanic and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

The next milestone will be the top 50 all over a billion, which at the current rate will be some time in 2020/21, and then of course we look forward to the next Star Wars film going over the $2 Billion mark!.

Two films this year have made it past $1 billion in world box office grosses, Avengers Age of Ultron and Fast and Furious 7, which brings the total number of films to go past the threshold to 20.

The first film to do the feat was Titanic back in 1997, that held on as the only film to do so until The Lord of The Rings: The Return of The King did it in 2004.

Since then we have had the likes of a Harry Potter film, a Transformers film, a Star Wars film after a re-release and a couple of Pirates of the Caribbean films do it.

Two animated films have also done the feat, Toy Story 3 and of course Disney's biggest hit to date Frozen.

The top film of all time, and the previously mentioned Titanic have gone over the $2 billion mark, although it did take Titanic a 3D re-release to do the $2B feat. Were looking at the first $3 Billion film now, Avengers Age of Ultron is doing well but will fall short, will Star Wars: The Force Awakens manage it, 2016 will tell us.