Quick take:
- Warner Bros has teamed up with Eluvio to bring “The Lord of the Rings” films to web3.
- The company also announced limited edition NFTs based on the “The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” film.
- In August 2021, Eluvio received a significant investment from Fox Corp at a $100 million valuation.
Warner Bros has collaborated with Eluvio to create a web3 movie experience in the metaverse. The global film and entertainment company will debut its new product on October 21, with a limited edition NFTs based on “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” film.
Fans of Peter Jackson’s epic film series will be able to buy limited edition multimedia NFTs from the WB movieverse platform, created in collaboration with Fox Corp-backed web3 company Eluvio. Eluvio received investment from the media giant in August 2021 at a valuation of $100 million.
According to the announcement, WB will also drop an extended version of “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” movie on the web3 platform, web3.wb.com, making it the first major studio to release a movie in NFTs.
Web3 is a next-gen internet, which leverages emerging technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, decentralised apps and AR/VR to enable decentralised experiences on the web.
“The Fellowship of the Ring” NFTs are the first ones to be available in the “WB Movieverse,” a new marketplace that will in the future include other titles from the studio,” said Jessica Schell, GM and EVP, Warner Bros.
WB and Eluvio are minting 999 NFTs of Epic Edition priced at $100 each while a further 10,000 Mystery Edition NFTs will be available at $30.00 apiece.
“The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” is the first film in the trilogy series, released in 2001. The film grossed $897 million according to Box Office records making it one of the highest-grossing films at the time.
The 3 hours and 48 minutes long web3-based extended version of the film will be viewable in 4K, and will be accompanied by “more than eight hours of special features; hundreds of images; and hidden AR collectibles.”
Lord of the Rings fans will be excited to explore some of the film’s iconic filming locations including The Shire, Rivendell, and Mines of Moria. One of the locations will be added to the Mystery Edition at random, while the Epic Edition includes extra images not included in the Mystery Edition.
According to Schell, bringing the film series to web3 is part of WB’s commitment to bringing new experiences to fans and collectors.
The film franchise has expanded over the years with more of J.R.R. Tolkien’s books making it to the big screen. Peter Jackson followed the success of the first trilogy with The Hobbit film series in 2012, 2013, and 2014.
More recently, Amazon Prime Video has created and produced a TV show “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” based on Tolkien’s ‘Middle-Earth’ book series. The technology giant spent $250 million for the show, which also attracted backing from Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, who is also a big fan of Tolkien’s work.
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