As part of a mammoth Deadline feature tracing the making of the Lord of The Rings trilogy for its 20th anniversary, Sean Astin has reflected on a disastrous early marketing campaign that treated the movies with a “Dungeons & Dragons thematic approach.” According to Astin, it was only after a pseudo-premiere and massive party at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival that the film’s marketing shifted tone.
As described by many of the stakeholders who were interviewed for the feature, Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy was unique at the time, and consequently many of those working to market, finance, and produce the films had no idea how to handle it. At the time, fantasy movies were generally considered bad box office bets, though Astin relates that early marketing efforts still treated The Lord Of The Rings like a standard fantasy romp.