The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is struggling on Rotten Tomatoes. Animated in a traditional Japanese anime style, the movie is set relatively early in The Lord of the Rings‘ timeline, having taken place 183 years before Frodo’s adventures. It depicts the war between Helm Hammerhand (Brian Cox) and the Dunlendings. Alongside Cox, the movie stars Gaia Wise as Héra, Luke Pasqualino as Wulf, and Miranda Otto as the narrator, Éowyn.

Despite being a major Lord of the Rings release, Rohirrim is divisive with critics. Alongside 1978’s The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014), Rohirrim is one of only three Lord of the Rings movies to earn a Rotten Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes with a 52% score. Among top critics, that score sinks to just 35%. Despite its low critical score, it has secured an 85% on the audience-led Popcornmeter. Check out the chart below, which compares the three lowest-scoring movies:

Title
Tomatometer Score
Popcornmeter Score

The Lord of the Rings (1978)
49%
64%

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)
59%
74%

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (2024)
52%
85%

What The Rotten Tomatoes Score Means For War Of The Rohirrim

The Movie Is Not Expected To Achieve Box Office Success

While Rohirrim‘s ending promises a follow-up, its box office results make that unlikely. The movie is expected to earn under $10 million through its first weekend, despite its $30 million budget. It should end its run with the lowest box office results of any movie in the franchise’s history. Even the 1978 movie earned $30 million at the box office, which was a success and would be $151 million today. With a B rating on CinemaScore, it also opens with the lowest rating of any modern Lord of the Rings adaptation:

Title
CinemaScore

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
A-

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
A

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
A+

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)
A

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
A-

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)
A-

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (2024)
B

Without positive responses, the movie will likely continue to struggle at the box office since poor reviews have been the most consistent issue. Many critics argue that the story is generic, the animation does not fit the narrative, and the entire production feels like a desperate grasp for money that did not need to be made. Screen Rant’s Rohirrim review was an exception, as Alex Harrison gave the movie a 7 out of 10 stars, saying:

The War of the Rohirrim is a film I would happily go back to. If Warner Bros. is to continue milking this property for all it’s worth, as they undoubtedly will, I hope they continue to take this approach, ideally with less of a mandate for callbacks. It would be nice to see more animators get the chance to filter this and other franchises through their imaginations.

Our Take On War Of The Rohirrim’s Rotten Tomatoes Score

This Should Not Come As A Surprise

Unfortunately, there was little chance for success. The animation style makes for a fairly generic depiction that does not match the aesthetic of Peter Jackson’s movies. The War of the Rohirrim‘s trailers attempted to tie into Jackson’s work by showing footage from older movies, but they instead serve as reminders of how different they really are. The movie was also released just two months after The Rings of Power season 2 ended. With an abundance of The Lord of the Rings content available, War of the Rohirrim simply could not be the spectacle that Warner Bros. needed.