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Curated category

American epic fantasy films

  • The Lord of the Rings (1978 film)Ralph Bakshi first encountered J.R.R. Tolkien's writing in the mid-1950s while working as an animator for Terrytoons. He began trying to convince people that…
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the RingThe Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring opened on the 19th of December 2001, and within its first five days in the United States and Canada it had…
  • Star Wars (film)Star Wars opened on the 25th of May 1977, in just 32 theaters across the United States. The cast and crew believed it would be a failure.
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the KingThe Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King crossed the one-billion-dollar mark at the worldwide box office in February 2004, only the second film in…
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Two TowersThe Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers premiered on the 5th of December 2002 at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City, and what audiences saw that night was…
  • Star Wars: The Last JediIn October 2012, Disney acquired Lucasfilm and announced a new trilogy of Star Wars films. J.J. Abrams directed the first installment, The Force Awakens…
  • The Empire Strikes BackThe Empire Strikes Back opens with a single haunting image: probe droids scattered across the galaxy, hunting. It was the 21st of May 1980, and audiences…
  • Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom MenaceGeorge Lucas returned to the Star Wars franchise in 1993 after a long hiatus that began with the release of Return of the Jedi in 1983.
  • Star Wars: The Rise of SkywalkerA year after the Battle of Crait, Emperor Palpatine sends a message of revenge to the galaxy. Kylo Ren obtains a Sith wayfinder that leads him to the hidden…
  • Star Wars: The Force AwakensStar Wars: The Force Awakens arrived in theaters on the 18th of December 2015, carrying a weight that almost no film in history had to bear.
  • Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the ClonesGeorge Lucas began writing the script for Attack of the Clones in March 2000, just three months before principal photography started.
  • Excalibur (film)Excalibur, the 1981 epic fantasy film directed by John Boorman, opens not with a hero but with a sorcerer. In the Dark Ages, Merlin retrieves a magical sword…