The Lord of the Rings Ring" and part of "The Two Towers". A three-issue comic book version of the movie was also published in Europe (but not printed in English), with illustrations by Luis Bermejo. When Bakshi's investors shied away of financing the second film that would complete the story, the remainder of the story was covered in an animated television special by Rankin-Bass. Stylistically, the two segments are very different. The second and more commercially successful adaptation was Peter Jackson's live action "The Lord of the Rings" film trilogy, produced by New Line Cinema and released in three instalments as "" (2001), "" (2002),
The Lord of the Rings (film series) 2014, brand new Blu-ray steelbook editions of the five-disc Extended Editions were released. The first, "The Fellowship of the Ring", was released on 24 March 2014. The discs are identical to those found in the previous five-disc Blu-ray set. Unadjusted for inflation, "The Lord of the Rings" film series is the highest-grossing film trilogy worldwide of all time, higher even than other film franchises such as the original "Star Wars" trilogy and "The Godfather" trilogy. The film series grossed a total of $2.91 billion and also tied a record with "Ben-Hur" and "Titanic" for the total number of Academy Awards