In late 2025, we discovered that The Lord of the Rings trilogy was coming back to theaters. (And they were the extended editions!) It was a weekend-long affair in January, with Fellowship of the Ring being shown Friday night, The Two Towers on Saturday afternoon, and Return of the King on Sunday afternoon. As soon as tickets went on sale, Kris jumped on it and ordered tickets for the weekend for the two of us and our cousins.

It was very impulsive, and I have no regrets about it at all! The movies themselves came out in the early 2000s, at a time that I didn’t know they existed. I actually didn’t start enjoying the Lord of the Rings franchise until I was in college. I took a Sci-fi and Fantasy course for an English Lit elective, and one of our homework assignments was to watch the Fellowship of the Ring. Fortunately, we had the movie, and our mom was game to watch it with me. While she ended up falling asleep by the end of the movie (because, hey, Mom works hard, haha!), I was enthralled and wanted to watch the other two immediately.

I find it funny that our introductions to The Lord of the Rings was college for both of us. I too hadn’t seen the movies until I was in college, which was a handful of years after Kris had seen the movies. I took a course called “Selected Authors” and that semester was all about J.K. Rowling and J.R.R. Tolkien. Of course, this was before we knew what sort of person Rowling is, so she’s the main reason I took the course because I loved Harry Potter. Anyway, I had to read The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Since I’m more of a visual person, I wanted to watch the movies first and Kris was more than thrilled to watch the trilogy with me.

I was thrilled to have Rachel join me in yet another fandom! Since then, we’ve rewatched the Lord of the Rings trilogy multiple times, enjoying when we’re able to dedicate a weekend or so to them, but we obviously were never able to experience them in the movie theater. It was amazing to have the opportunity to see the extended edition in theaters, with each other and our cousins, who we had since roped into the fandom as well. Mainly because of the prices, we don’t go to the movie theaters too often now, so this was a special treat. The theater we watched the movies at was great, as well.

I stopped going to the movies a long time ago, only making an exception for Detective Pikachu when that released in 2019. However, when Kris told me The Lord of the Rings was in theaters for one weekend, it was too good to pass up. Unfortunately, one cousin got sick and the other got roped into work, so Kris and I saw The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers alone. But the four of us were able to attend Return of the King together, which was a lot of fun. The theater we saw the movies in was dine-in. We didn’t know how it worked, so we simply got the typical movie theater popcorn and candy for the first move, but for the other two movies I had boneless BBQ chicken wings and they were delicious!

I’ve gone only a handful of times in the past few years – the first two Sonic the Hedgehog movies, then the War of the Rohirrim, which was incidentally another Lord of the Rings film – so it had been well over a year since I stepped in a movie theater as well. Despite our cousins not being able to make it to the first two films of the weekend, Rachel and I were absolutely comfortable having a couple of extra seats for our belongings. Since the movies were shown in January, we were bundled up with coats that got their own seats during those first couple of days! For food, I got a chicken caesar salad wrap with french fries to enjoy during the last two movies, and they were wonderful!

The only downside to this theater was that it’s about thirty minutes away from our house (and that’s without traffic). Luckily, we didn’t hit much traffic at all, but I believe we were about thirty or forty-five minutes early to The Fellowship of the Ring because I was paranoid about traffic and the parking and only half of the drive to and from the theater was familiar to me. Since I knew half of the route, I got stuck being the driver all three days. The first day was fine, the second day was rainy, and the third day was snowy. Thankfully, the majority of the snow held off until after we got home. I believe we got back from the movies right in time before the snow started to stick. That said, the weather was perfect movie theater weather. Despite driving in lousy weather, I’d rather go to the movies on a rainy day than a sunny spring day.

And we very much appreciated you being the designated driver! While I’m sure I would have found my way with the help of a GPS, my family knows my sense of direction is abysmal. The tickets were taken care of and our cousins were generous enough to pay for the food on the third day. The theater itself was very nice, the parking lot being spacious, and it was a delight seeing the movies almost – if not fully – sold out with fellow Lord of the Rings fans. There was a range of ages, as well, with older fans who may have been able to see the movies when they were originally in theaters to younger kids who may have been getting their first taste of Middle-Earth. It was a great, friendly vibe all around.

It was a lovely experience as a whole, agreed. It was also great to see many people come to the movies in cosplay, too. Even our cousin wore her Hobbit cloak. I wanted to wear mine, but my distaste of it getting dirty and germy from the theater was too great for me to take it out of the house. I’m glad we were able to experience that and, while we were there, we saw an ad for the live action 90s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze was also coming back to theaters for its anniversary in March.

It would have been great for all of us to wear our cloaks together, but I agree with you that we had no idea how recently the theater itself was cleaned. It was awesome that we saw the ad for the Ninja Turtles movie returning to theaters, too! While we evidently missed the first movie that came back to theaters the year before, we were able to keep an eye out for when Secret of the Ooze came back to theaters. Luckily for us, our local cinema was showing the movie, and we had an awesome evening watching the movie with our friend.

Yes, this time we didn’t have to drive thirty minutes away! It was only ten minutes and Kris drove. We picked up our friend who also loves the Ninja Turtles and enjoyed seeing such a classic on the big screen. However, the vibe wasn’t nearly the same as seeing The Lord of the Rings. The theater itself (not just our movie, pretty much the whole theater) was practically empty, even the parking lot was bare. And during the movie, I’m pretty sure it was the three of us and maybe about six other people? If that? It wasn’t nearly as popular.

It could also be said that the cinemas as a whole aren’t as popular but, I agree, the theater for Secret of the Ooze wasn’t as full as when we saw the Lord of the Rings. Granted, the Ninja Turtles movies were even older than the Lord of the Rings and were shown on a random weeknight rather than a weekend marathon. I wonder if the trilogy went a similar route as the Lord of the Rings if it would have been more popular. I’m guessing that the first Ninja Turtles movie was better received, and I’m disappointed we hadn’t gotten the chance to see that in the theaters. Regardless, we had fun!

I agree; I think it would have been better if they showed the trilogy. Then again, the movies are so short compared to The Lord of the Rings showing, which were the extended versions. I would have loved to see the first Ninja Turtles movie in theaters, especially since we’re not huge fans of the third movie. Still, if the third movie comes to theaters, I wouldn’t be opposed to seeing it.

Right? Having a year, presumably, be in between each movie probably didn’t help the ticket sales for the Ninja Turtles. Obviously, yes, if and when the third movie comes around to the theaters, we will absolutely make an effort to go and see it. It’s definitely not the best one of the trilogy, but it’s the Ninja Turtles. They help make the movie fun!

Kris

Kris is the older sister of the pair, and has been playing video games since she was able to read. She was introduced to the gaming world mainly by her uncles with the Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 consoles.

As a child, she wanted to grow up to be a teenage mutant ninja turtle, but instead she works a typical 9 to 5 office job. Much of her other time is spent pet-sitting, writing, and role-playing shenanigans in tabletop RPGs.

Rachel

Often seen as the second player, Rachel grew up watching Kris play video games before she was old enough to pick up a Nintendo controller herself. Now she only sometimes gives Kris the hard bosses to defeat.

In real life, Rachel is a full-time pet sitter and part-time storyteller. She writes game reviews for Pure Nintendo Magazine, and is working on creating her own video game.