Lord Of The Rings 4K Blu-Ray Box Set Discounted To Black Friday Price At Amazon

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy’s move to 4K UHD resolution is fittingly marvelous. Middle-earth comes alive with the visual and audio enhancements provided by Dolby Vision HDR10 and Dolby Atmos 5.1 surround sound. The only downside to this collection is that it no longer comes a voucher for the digital versions of the movies.

The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy doesn’t include any conventional special features, but you’re still getting two hours of content not shown in theaters. If you haven’t watched the extended cuts, you’re in for a treat. Each movie is substantially longer than its theatrical counterpart, which is impressive considering the trilogy already eclipsed nine hours in theaters. The Fellowship of the Ring’s extended cut is 30 minutes longer, The Two Towers is 44 minutes longer, and The Return of the King is 51 minutes longer. Return of the King’s extended version is one of the rare movies that eclipses four hours.

Each film’s extended cut is spread across two discs, while the theatrical releases get one disc each. Here’s the total runtime of the theatrical and extended versions of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy:

The Lord of the Rings Theatrical Cuts

• The Fellowship of the Ring – 178 minutes (2 hours and 58 minutes)
• The Two Towers – 179 minutes (2 hours and 59 minutes)
• The Return of the King – 200 minutes (3 hours and 20 minutes)

Total runtime: 9 hours and 18 minutes

The Lord of the Rings Extended Cuts

• The Fellowship of the Ring – 208 minutes (3 hours and 28 minutes)
• The Two Towers – 223 minutes (3 hours and 43 minutes)
• The Return of the King – 251 minutes (4 hours and 11 minutes)

Total runtime: 11 hours and 22 minutes

The Hobbit Trilogy’s 4K Blu-ray box set is available for $59 at Amazon

Big fans of The Lord of the Rings may want to add the recently released Walmart-exclusive version of The Fellowship of the Ring to their shelves–as long as you don’t already own it. The case shown above is the same one from The Lord of the Rings Trilogy Steelbook Collection; Walmart is simply selling the first film on its own. Hopefully The Two Towers and The Return of the King will be released next, but it’s unclear if Walmart will have all three.

Nevertheless, The Fellowship of the Ring’s Limited Edition Steelbook is a gorgeous display piece on its own. It comes with the same 4K Blu-ray remaster and special features as the film does in the $55 collection, but you also get a voucher for the digital edition.

The Fellowship of the Ring’s 4K Limited Edition Steelbook has already sold out at least once since preorders opened, but it’s in stock for $35 and available to ship now.

If you don’t have a 4K media player, there are numerous standard Blu-ray collections of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Most notably, you can get the remastered Lord of the Rings Trilogy Blu-ray box set for only $18.19 (was $25) at Amazon. Remastered in 2021 for Fellowship of the Ring’s 20th anniversary, these are higher quality than earlier Blu-ray releases. This particular set features the theatrical cuts, but there is a version of the remaster with the extended cuts for $40 (it’s not on sale).

The 4K UHD editions are certainly better–and you get both cuts–but the remastered 1080p releases still look great.

The Hobbit Trilogy Theatrical Collection, meanwhile, is available for only $16.36 at Amazon. Alternatively, you can get The Hobbit Trilogy Extended Collection for $30 (was $40) at Walmart.