Peter Jackson’s ‘Reissue’ ProfitableLord of the RingsThe trilogy not only reflects on the staying power of J.R.R. Tolkien’s 25-year-old film franchise, it also sheds light on the troubling creative gap in Hollywood today.

The epic adventure fantasy film “The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring” was first released in 2001 and grossed over $900 million at the box office. The sequels “The Two Towers” (2002) and “The Return of the King” (2003) grossed more than $2 billion at the box office.

Re-releasing profitable and popular films is a tradition that goes back generations, starting with classics like “The Wizard of Oz,” “Gone with the Wind” and “Casablanca.” Before television and video cassette recorders, theaters were the only place to re-watch what you saw on your neighbor’s big screen.

But studio executives recognize that audiences find it satisfying to see a movie more than once (or twice or more!)—sometimes even years or decades apart. Holiday or anniversary reposts have proven to be profitable. With the advent of IMAX technology and digital restoration, it’s easy to find excuses to reintroduce some classics.

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Ian McKellen stars as Gandalf in a still from The Lord of the Rings, opposite Elijah Wood’s Frodo (based on JRR Tolkien’s novel). (New Line/WireImage/Getty Images)

Hollywood has produced more than 25,000 films over more than 100 years. Today, major studios produce 200 to 300 productions a year. That may sound like a lot, but it’s a huge drop from a century ago when more than 800 films were produced every 12 months.

While ranking movies is subjective, the vast majority are forgettable – but some are memorable, and not always because we like them. Interestingly and thought-provoking, according to the Internet Movie Database IMDb, all but one of the 10 worst movies of all time (RoboCop 3) were made during this century. Conversely, of the top ten best films, only four were made in the past quarter-century, two of which are The Lord of the Rings.

Remember, British author JRR Tolkien wrote his famous series in the early to mid-20th century.

One of Hollywood’s more curious and confusing habits is the studios’ stubbornness and unwillingness to make more movies that appeal to families. Instead, they insist on making movies that offend our moral sensibilities, despite evidence that cleaner, more wholesome movies would perform better than the garbage they produce. We’re bombarded with dark storylines filled with unnecessary profanity and gratuitous sex and violence. Instead of goodness, we get garbage.

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Since it’s more expensive to see a movie today than it was a few generations ago, it’s misleading to look at the top-grossing movies in history to understand which films are resonating with audiences. Instead, see which movies sell the most tickets. Among the 10 most viewed works, 6 are Stable family fare: “Gone with the Wind,” “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope,” “E.T.,” “The Sound of Music,” “The Ten Commandments” and 1937’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.”

The seventh “Jaws” scared a lot of kids and beachgoers, but was still relatively tame compared to today’s offerings. There isn’t an “R” rated movie on the list.

So why not do more of what is clearly effective? This disconnect is something I’ve seen during my thirty years working at Focus on the Family, a global family help organization. We hear from countless parents who crave healthy and inspiring movies. That’s why we’re releasing our first animated children’s film in theaters this fall: “The Odyssey: The Impossible Journey.” This is the origin story of a long-running children’s radio show.

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Movies reflect culture, of course, but they also reveal the hearts and minds of those who run the studios and write the scripts for the stories they tell. You may not know the name Lewis R. Forster, but you may be familiar with the film for which he won an Oscar for writing: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, starring Jimmy Stewart and directed by Frank Capra.

British actor Bernard Hill plays the heroic King Théoden of Rohan in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. He died on May 5, 2024, at the age of 79. (PictureLux/Hollywood Archives/Alamy Stock Photo)

Stewart credits the classic film about an idealistic junior senator fighting corruption in the Washington swamp for shaping his career and helping him understand how Strong and moral character Able to have a positive impact on the world. Foster personally embodied these ideals, loved America, his wife, and family, and conceived this story. Because of this story, Stewart began pursuing other similar stories – including “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.”

One person’s beautiful mind also helps to make other people’s minds more beautiful. Everything affects everything else.

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There’s a reason the self-proclaimed “chief of sinners” the Apostle Paul urged people to be careful about what they watch and read. Obviously, there were no movies before 2000, but there were a lot of other things vying for attention and influencing human behavior. That’s why Paul wrote: “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if there is anything excellent or praiseworthy—think about these things.”

Movies reflect culture, of course, but they also reveal the hearts and minds of those who run the studios and write the scripts for the stories they tell.

If we really wanted to save the culture, we would encourage the production of more films like the Lord of the Rings trilogy that embody these virtues: the triumph of hope over fear, the triumph of good over evil, and the importance of friendship, loyalty, and sacrifice.

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In a 1954 New York Times review of The Lord of the Rings, poet and essayist WH Auden praised the British author, suggesting that his “invention was relentless.” He went on to add, “Mr. Tolkien was blessed with an astonishing gift for naming and an eye for precise description…No novel I have read in the past five years has brought me more joy than The Lord of the Rings.”

If Hollywood emulated these same attributes of its screenwriters as they put scripts and stories together for the big screen, they would do us all (and their own financial bottom lines) a favor.

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