Summary
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The poor performance in theaters was probably due to it being a direct production to secure the franchise rights.
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Director Kamiyama faced challenges in blending 2D and motion-capture animation for the film, with some segments being animated traditionally.
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The film explores the untold story of the LotR books, focusing on King Helm Hammerhand and Lord Wulf 183 years before the original trilogy.
Quick links
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War of the Rohirrim mixes 2D and 3D animation
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The untold story in the LotR books
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The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohir had a mixed reception but the director worked really hard to bring this film to life. It opened in theaters worldwide in December, but did not perform as well as expected at the box office. lord of the rings film. It ran for 2-3 weeks (depending on where you live) and is already available on digital platforms, at least in the US (and possibly a few other territories).
As bad as it may sound, there is evidence to suggest that this film was actually a direct streaming production that went into theaters so that Warner could secure the rights to produce more content for the franchise. So in that sense, even though they only made $15 million at the box office (the film's budget is estimated at $30 million), perhaps theatrical performance wasn't a priority for Warner (although we don't know how much the company is making from the streaming offering).

Related
Review of The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim
From the director of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex comes a beautiful, nostalgic and exciting return to Middle-earth.
But just because this movie was made mainly to retain the rights doesn't mean that the people who worked on it didn't take their jobs seriously. IndieWire recently posted an interview with director Kenji Kamiyama and producer Joseph Chou. In this interview Kamiyama stated that he had a shorter time frame to deliver the film compared to the deadlines he usually works on anime films. Chou added that Kamiyawa oversaw basically every step of the production and “almost killed himself doing it”.:
From motion capture data to CG movement to camera control to every single shot that appears in relation to the artwork, Kamiyama had to go through each one and check everything. It's kind of unprecedented and he almost killed himself doing it, but he did it.
War of the Rohirrim mixes 2D and 3D animation
Despite the 2D animation, the production relied on motion capture, which was later transposed to 2D, and this was a challenge for Kamiyama. According to him, the animators tended to exaggerate when converting the motion capture to 2D and the movements would not look natural. So there was a lot of “trial and error” in production.
This decision was made because, according to Chou, now that demand is higher than ever, there is a shortage of animators, so in order to meet the deadline, they rely on motion capture to save more time. Still, they had to enlist the help of other studios, including renowned names in the industry such as MAPPA and Production IG. Several segments were also animated using traditional techniques, such as the final fight between Hera and Wulf.
The untold story in the LotR books
The film tells the story it refers to lord of the rings books but have never been fully explored. The war takes place 183 years before the events of the original trilogy, focusing on King Helm Hammerhand and Lord Wulf. Freca, Wulf's father, tries to arrange a marriage between his son and King Helm's daughter Hera (not originally named in the books), but Helm thinks that Freca is really after his throne, and not some friendly alliance. This leads to a feud between Helm and Wulf after the king kills Freca in anger.
The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohir is available on digital platforms (Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV and Fandango at Home) in the US.
Source: IndieWire