Tanja Välisalo, in an empirical study of the audience reception of "The Hobbit" films, found that Thranduil was mentioned by just under 5% of respondents, placing him 7th in the list of people's favourites among the films' cast of characters. They found the character sexually attractive, along with Thorin (played by the "handsome" Richard Armitage). In addition, the audience had an "allegiance" to the character; Välisalo cites as illustration comments like "Thranduil truly captured me" and "this character's make-up and character design ... were a perfect success."