How long is the Lord of the Rings trilogy?

The Lord of the Rings movies by Peter Jackson are famously long. But how long? We’re here with the answers:

• The theatrical version The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is 178 minutes long, or 2 hours and 58 minutes.
• The theatrical version of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is 179 minutes long, or 2 hours and 59 minutes.
• Finally, the theatrical version of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is a hefty 200 minutes long, or 3 hours 20 minutes.

All told, the theatrical version of the trilogy runs 557 minutes. But what about the extended editions?

• The extended edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is 208 minutes long, or 3 hours and 28 minutes.
• The extended edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is 223 minutes long, or 3 hours and 43 minutes long.
• The extended edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is a honking 251 minutes, or 4 hours and 11 minutes long.

That’s a total of 682 minutes. That’s a lotta watching.

The Lord of the Rings run time

But that’s just the movies. How long are the books by J.R.R. Tolkien?

• The Fellowship of the Ring: 187,790 words
• The Two Towers: 156,198 words
• The Return of the King: 137,115 words

That brings the entire thing to 481,103 words. With The Hobbit (95,356 words), it comes to 576,459 words.

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