Lord Of The Rings: How Long Are The Theatrical & Extended Version Runtimes Total?
Everyone and their mother is aware of how long "The Lord of the Rings" films are — at least, generally speaking. Each movie is an hours-long affair, and the trilogy is a behemoth to sit through. The extended editions add a sizeable number of minutes to the total runtime, too. The question is, just how many minutes long are the two trilogies exactly? It turns out that there are a lot of different numbers circulating out there. Nevertheless, we worked through the chaos and came up with some answers.
Starting from a 10,000-foot view, the theatrical version of all three "Lord of the Rings" films is 558 minutes (or nine hours and 17 minutes) in total. The extended editions of all three movies combined clocks in at a staggering 726 minutes (12 hours and six minutes).
That's right. The added footage tacks on 168 minutes or nearly three hours to the already sizeable run time of the original versions. To put it another way, you could watch the theatrical trilogy and "Saving Private Ryan" in basically the same amount of time that it would take to watch the extended editions on their own.
What is the movie-by-movie breakdown?
It's hard to imagine "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy as anything less than a single story. However, if viewers want to break the experience up, they do have the easy and convenient option of watching each movie one at a time. With that in mind, here is the time-based breakdown for both the theatrical and extended experiences.
According to IMDb, "The Fellowship of the Ring" is 178 minutes (2 hours and 58 minutes) long, the runtime for "The Two Towers" is 179 minutes (2 hours and 59 minutes), and "The Return of the King" clocks in at a robust 201 minutes (3 hours and 21 minutes). Add it all up, and you get a grand total of 558 minutes.
When Peter Jackson and company pulled together their extended editions of each film, they clearly felt no restraints. The adjusted times are as follows: The extended scenes from "The Fellowship of the Ring" are 50 minutes long, bringing the film's total up to 228 minutes (3 hours and 48 minutes). "The Two Towers" extended footage runs for 56 more minutes, bringing the total to 235 minutes (3 hours and 55 minutes). "The Return of the King" gets an additional 53 minutes of pure Middle-earth footage. However, there were so many names added to the revised credits list that it ends up bumping up the number of new minutes to over an hour. This gives it a gargantuan total runtime of 263 minutes (4 hours and 23 minutes). Roll everything into one giant viewing session, and you're looking at a fantasy screen experience that lasts 726 minutes (12 hours and six minutes) — that is, if you want to sit through the end credits for every film, which adds up to a short movie in and of itself.