Peter Jackson’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’ Franchise Gave ‘The Godfather’ Trilogy a Run for Its Money With Oscars Feat, That Al Pacino’s Films First Set
- The Godfather and The Lord of the Rings are two of the most acclaimed trilogies.
- The Godfather achieved a huge feat in terms of Oscars nominations and The Lord of the Rings followed suit.
- Both of these trilogies had excellent ratings although the box office collection of The Godfather was not that good.
There are few film series as great as The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Godfather trilogy. Every single film in both of those trilogies is a masterpiece on its own. Even more fascinating is the fact that they belong to completely different genres- while the former is a fantasy film series, the latter is a crime drama series.
The stark difference in the genres, however, has not stopped either of those trilogies from earning nominations at prestigious award ceremonies like the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes. In fact, one feat achieved by The Lord of the Rings trilogy easily rivaled a similar accomplishment by The Godfather trilogy.
The Lord of the Rings trilogy made history by being nominated for the same Oscar award as The Godfather trilogy
The Lord of the Rings is based on J. R. R. Tolkien’s novel series of the same name. Three movies subtitled The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King were released in 2001, 2002, and 2003. All three movies were critical and commercial successes.
The cast, the visual effects, the film editing, the cinematography, and Peter Jackson‘s masterful direction – there was no aspect of these films that could have been criticized negatively. The trilogy was undeniably pure perfection and is considered one of the best fantasy film series to date.
On the other hand, Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather trilogy is a series of crime dramas that explores complex themes like family and loyalty, power and corruption, and the dark side of the American Dream. While the first two movies were released in 1972 and 1974, the third one was released in 1990, sixteen years after the release of the second one. The performances of Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, and Robert De Niro were for the history books.
All three movies of this trilogy were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Years later, The Lord of the Rings trilogy achieved the same feat. The only difference was that the first two movies from The Godfather trilogy won the accolade, but the first two movies from the fantasy film series did not do the same. It was the third movie, The Return of the King that won the Oscar for Best Picture.
However, one thing that is worth noting here is that The Return of the King‘s Best Picture win was historic as it became the first fantasy film ever to have won that award. Moreover, the movie was nominated in 10 other categories as well at the Oscars and it won in all of them. This placed it alongside James Cameron’s romantic dramedy Titanic and William Wyler’s religious epic Ben-Hur as the movie with the most Academy Award wins.
The Lord of the Rings and The Godfather trilogies also had excellent ratings
The Lord of the Rings movies’ IMDb ratings are 8.9, 8.8, and 9. On the other hand, The Godfather film series saw a decline in the ratings as the first two films had 9.2 and 9 ratings, but the last one saw a steep fall and landed with only 7.6 (via IMDb). The Metascore ratings, on the other hand, showed a different trend.
The Lord of the Rings trilogy’s box office earnings gradually increased with each movie (via Box Office Mojo). The first two movies made $868 million and $923 million respectively, while the third one grossed $1.1 billion, making it the highest-grossing movie of the year and the second-highest-grossing film of all time during its run.
The Godfather trilogy, on the other hand, showed what seemed to be a downward trend in terms of earnings (via Box Office Mojo). The first film made $243.8 million at the global box office. The second and third movies have earned $66.6 million and $47.5 million respectively. However, it should be noted that the international box office earnings for both of these movies are not documented, possibly because they were either not tracked or not publicized.
