Tolkien is a 2019 American biographical drama film about the early life of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit author John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. The biopic was released in cinemas in the UK on May 3 and on May 10 in the US. The movie shows the renowned author’s life as he finds friendship, courage and inspiration among a fellow group of writers and artists at school.
Their friendship strengthens as they grow up and come across love and loss together.
The film features scenes including Tolkien’s tumultuous courtship of Edith Bratt.
However, the outbreak of the First World War which threatens to tear their fellowship apart.
All of these experiences would later inspire Tolkien to write his famous Middle-earth novels.
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How much has Tolkien biopic made?
Tolkien opened to a disappointing £550,348, and had £742,771 across the four first days.
Interest does not seem to have transferred from Lord Of The Rings or The Hobbit trilogies, with the lowest opening of those six films coming in at £9.4m.
In the US the film has made just over $4million (£3.16m) and in the UK Tolkien made $2m (£1.58m).
In total, this makes just over $6m (£4.74m), making the biopic somewhat a flop.
Tolkien cost approximately $20m (£16m) to make which means the project lost a massive amount of money.
It is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures under the Fox Searchlight Pictures banner, making it the first film released by Searchlight after their acquisition by Disney on March 20, 2019.
In the US and Canada, the film was released alongside Pokémon Detective Pikachu, Poms and The Hustle, and was projected to gross $2–4 million from 1,425 cinemas in its opening weekend.
It ended up debuting to $2.2 million and finishing in ninth.
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 50 percent. based on 149 reviews.
Tolkien has the period trappings and strong performances of a worthy biopic, but lacks the imagination required to truly do its subject justice, the critics’ consensus says.
On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 48 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating “mixed or average reviews.”