While Warner Bros still depends heavily on movie distribution the traditional way, the firm is also open to exploring some alternative distribution networks. American multimedia entertainment firm Warner Bros Discover Inc announced the launch of “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs).
The company made this announcement as it aims to deepen its foothold in the Web3.0 ecosystem. The Lords of the Rings NFTs have an exclusive edition and the extended version of the original movie franchise will become available as early as October 21, 2022.
Unveiled in partnership with Web3.0 platform Eluvio, the Lord of the Rings NFTs will be available in two versions with different prices. The 999 copies of the Epic Edition version sells for $100 and 10,000 of the Mystery Edition are Valued at $30 each.
As previously reported by Variety, buyers in these two categories can gain access to an extended version of the film that clocks in at 3 hours and 48 minutes in 4K UHD, together with access to over eight hours of special and exclusive features, hidden AR collectibles, and hundreds of images.
To acquire one of these nonfungible tokens, users will need to create an Eluvio wallet through which they can gain access to the sales page. The NFTs can be bought using Ethereum, Solana, Bitcoin, and USD Coin, all of which compliments the credit card options that are made available on the platform.
By description, NFTs are tokens whose digital ownership can be validated via the blockchain. While Warner Bros is among the first mainstream movie studios to launch these related nonfungible tokens, questions about the full ownership of the NFT pieces have raised many eyebrows as Warner Bros and Eluvio still control the IPs to these digital collectibles entirely.
These collections are Ethereum-compatible and are hosted on Eluvio’s Content Fabric Blockchain. Eluvio CEO and Co-founder Michelle Munson told Decrypt about the nonfungible tokens in an interview:
“The core digital assets themselves, not just the token, are on the blockchain. They’re both owned and attested to and all of the streaming that you’ll see with the film, with the AR objects, the interactive experience, the audio commentaries, all of that is both authorized and distributed directly from the Content Fabric blockchain.”
Warner Bros Harnessing Digital Age Advantage With Its NFTs
Times appear to be changing fast, and the same holds for the entertainment sector. While Warner Bros still majorly depends on movie distribution the traditional way, it seems open to exploring alternative distribution networks one of which is made fully possible by blockchain technology.
Based on a statement by Warner Bros’ EVP and General Manager, Jessica Schell, the debut of the Lord of the Rings NFT is mainly an experiment to determine consumers’ appetite for content that is packaged and sold as digital collectibles. Schell stated:
“It will be easy to miss that it’s using Web3 or NFTs under the hood, and that is by design. We think the initiative has implications as a potential new way to handle movie distribution directly to our fans.”
This trend featuring the launch of NFTs is growing fast amongst entertainment brands with Warner Bros’ competitors including Netflix Inc also having unleashed their collections.
