Warner Bros. launches a film NFT platform, starting with ‘Lord of the Rings’. But why?

Ignoring all previous evidence that NFTs are on the way out, Warner Bros. precisely an NFT partnership for Peter Jacksons Lord of the Rings trilogy. In collaboration with Web3 company Eluvio, this NFT re-release will supposedly launch a “WB Movieverse” for movie NFT.

The product itself here is a bit confusing. NFTs are usually considered to be a financial investment, with the “token” hopefully increasing in value like an antique or piece of art. However, the Warner Bros. announcement describes this project similarly to a more traditional streaming release.

Retailing for either $100 (for an Epic Edition) or $30 (for a Mystery Edition), each NFT includes a digital copy of The Fellowship of the Ring, plus special features. In other words, the same product that fans have been accessing via DVD for the past 20 years. The only new content appears to be “AR collectibles” such as a wand, an extensive gallery of Community images and a set of interactive Middle-earth menus to navigate all the features. It is unclear why this would be more desirable than the already existing options for purchasing the movies, since this process involves the additional step of signing up on a browser-based NFT platform. You can currently buy the extended one Community Blu-ray on Amazon for $21.

So far, this NFT launch has not been well received on social media. As the news spread on Twitter, people mocked the thematic similarities between NFTs and the One Ring. Many commentators also questioned why Warner Bros. launched this project in the first place, in light of the studio’s recent financial problems.

While the Warner Bros. announcement was praised by some in the NFT/crypto community, these positive comments were outnumbered by people criticizing NFTs as a scam, or posting sarcastic responses like “congratulations, you made a dvd menu” .

This launch also comes at a difficult time, both for the NFT market and for Warner Bros. self. Thanks to some controversial decisions made by Warner Bros. regarding the DC franchise and various animated projects, the studio is currently facing a lot of backlash in the geek culture sphere – i.e. an obvious audience for Lord of the Rings Products.

Additionally, NFTs are far less popular now than they were a few months ago. More people are aware of the environmental concerns associated with cryptocurrency and NFTs, along with evidence of financial instability for NFT investors, such as Logan Paul who allegedly lost millions of dollars. In the context of the recent NFT market crash, this “WB Movieverse” platform feels like it came late to the party.

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