Middle-earth in film also became the most-nominated in the Academy's history, surpassing the "Godfather" series' 28 (with the release of "The Hobbit", the series currently has 36 nominations total). Its 11 Oscars at the 2004 Academy Awards tied it for most awards won for one film with "Titanic" six years earlier and the 1959 version of "Ben-Hur." It also broke the previous "sweep" record, beating "Gigi" and "The Last Emperor" (which each took 9 out of 9). "The Return of the King" also made movie history as the highest-grossing film opening on a Wednesday and was the second film after "Titanic" to earn
Ben Hur (1907 film) November 1911. This ruling established the precedent that all motion picture production companies must first secure the film rights of any previously published work still under copyright before commissioning a screenplay based on that work. Ben Hur (1907 film) Ben Hur is a 15-minute-long 1907 silent drama film, the first film version of Lew Wallace's novel "", one of the best-selling books at that time. The film was directed by Canadian director Sidney Olcott and Frank Oakes Rose. At fifteen minutes long, only a small portion of the story was put on screen. The focus of the piece was the