…Lawsuits to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
They’re preciousss, those nasty little hobbitses. We loves them, we does; oh yes. But not quite as much, perhaps, as the lawyers do.
The three Lord of the Rings films have taken just under $3 billion at the box office since 2001, and who knows how much more via home-entertainment platforms. Part one of Peter Jackson’s second trilogy, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, has taken a shade more than $1 billion. The various merchandising spinoffs – a veritable storming horde of products including action figures, Lego sets, costumes and role-playing games – has generated untold millions more.
Little wonder this precious bounty has given birth to a whole other sub-industry – hotly contested court cases to determine the ownership and right to profit from all things hobbit-related. For those involved, the world created by J.R.R. Tolkien has become the one ring that binds them all … in endless litigation.
Continue reading Lawsuits to rule them all, lawsuits to find them…