All 3 of The Lord of The Rings movies ranked from worst to best

LOS ANGELES - DECEMBER 3: Actor Elijah Wood arrives at the premiere of "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" held on December 3, 2003 at the Village Theater, in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES - DECEMBER 3: Actor Elijah Wood arrives at the premiere of "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" held on December 3, 2003 at the Village Theater, in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
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The Lord of the Rings movies
The screening of “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” with Howard Shore’s score performed live at Radio City Music Hall on Friday night, October 8, 2010. Actor Elijah Wood is on the screen.Ludwig Wicki conducted the 21st Century Orchestra, the Dessoff Symphonic Choir and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus.(Photo by Hiroyuki Ito/Getty Images)

Lord of the Rings movies ranked

The Lord of the Rings trilogy is largely considered to be one of the best movie franchises of all time. Peter Jackson directed all three of The Lord of the Rings movies, which are based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s book series of the same name. None of the more recent Hobbit movies or Rings of Power series are quite as good as the original trilogy.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is returning to theaters to celebrate the film’s 20th anniversary on April 13, 2023. We thought it’d be a good time to rank The Lord of the Rings movies from worst to best.

Let me preface with this: All three of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings movies are fantastic. There is a “worst” one, but that movie is still better than like 99.9% of movies!

Picking the best of The Lord of the Rings is a challenge. It’s not a getting the ring from the Shire to Mount Doom, but it’s definitely splitting hairs of Saruman’s beard if you know what I mean.

It’s also insanity that these movies were released in consecutive years! That just doesn’t happen with movies like these anymore.

The Lord of the Rings movies in order:

  • The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) 
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

Let’s get the list started with the worst of The Lord of the Rings movies so far!