Why does the tolkien estate hate the movies

There's a lot of room for discussion here. The core works remain the core works, and the article notes that the original Lord of the Rings books saw a massive uptick in sales after the release of the movies.

Tolkien's ambitious 12 volume history has sold half a million copies, a feat surely aided by increased awareness brought on by the movies. But at the same time can a property be diluted in a fundamental way?

Did all of those copies of Lord of the Rings get read, or did people throw them aside in boredom? Is dumbing something down a legitimate way to bring new people into it? Despite the film's best intentions to bring the Lord of the Rings creator's life to the big screen, it was never given the Tolkien estate's official blessing.

Directed by Dome Karukoski, Tolkien details the formative years of J. Tolkien, showcasing the relationships and hardships that inspired his literary classics , which, of course, began " in a hole in the ground. Also starring Lily Collins, Anthony Boyle, and Colm Meaney, the film makes great strides to honor Tolkien's legacy, though it hasn't convinced the Tolkien estate to budge on officially supporting it. Screen Rant interviewed Tolkien's cast and director to learn why exactly the Tolkien estate refuses to support the new film.

In these letters, published in The Letters of J. Tolkien , we get a rare glimpse of Tolkien the surprisingly shrewd businessman. He gave examples of what displeased him:. Naturally not: his sword was broken … Why then make him do so here, in a contest that was explicitly not fought with weapons?

Aragorn does not blanch. The great success continues a long-established trend of Middle-earth movies doing well in theaters, and it has caused many to begin thinking about the future. The sad reality is that chances are slim. Years and years of dispute suggest that the future of Middle-earth movies is bleak.

In an interview with Le Monde back in , Tolkien Estate lawyer Cathleen Blackburn recounted, "These hugely popular films apparently did not make any profit! We were receiving statements saying that the producers did not owe the Tolkien Estate a dime.

In early , the Tolkiens took Warner Bros. The feud between the estate and the studio grew hotter in July , and the future of the Middle-earth franchise beyond The Hobbit trilogy received what could easily be conceived as a death blow.