The Lord of the Rings books III and IV, and as such the eponymous towers could be either Orthanc and Barad-dûr, or Minas Tirith and Barad-dûr, or Orthanc and Cirith Ungol. Tolkien was initially opposed to titles being given to each two-book volume, preferring instead the use of book titles: e.g. "The Lord of the Rings": Vol. 1, "The Ring Sets Out" and "The Ring Goes South"; Vol. 2, "The Treason of Isengard" and "The Ring Goes East"; Vol. 3, "The War of the Ring" and "The End of the Third Age". However these individual book titles were later scrapped, and after pressure from his
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King run. In the US and Canada, it is the 27th highest-grossing film, the highest-grossing 2003 film, and the highest-grossing instalment in "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. The film set an opening Wednesday record with $34.5 million. This record was first surpassed by "Spider-Man 2" and ranks as the seventh largest Wednesday opening. The film opened a day earlier for a midnight showing and accounted for about $8 million. This was nearly twice the first-day total of "" — which earned $18.2 million on its opening day in 2001 — as well as a significant increase over "" — which