Rings Exhibition Exceeds Expectations

Tuesday 18 April 2006

Lord Of The Rings Exhibition Exceeds Expectations On Opening Weekend

The opening weekend for the return of The Lord of the Rings Motion Picture Trilogy - The Exhibition has exceeded visitor targets and surpassed the opening days of the exhibition in 2002. Since opening to the public on Good Friday, the exhibition has already achieved nearly 11,000 visitors, which is 2000 more visitors compared with the first five days of the original season in 2002.

“We are delighted with the numbers so far,” said Mr Paul Brewer, Director Marketing and Communications.

“There continues to be a fascination with the film trilogy. The vision of Peter Jackson, and the creative talents of the many behind-the-scenes people – from model makers Weta Workshop to Ngila Dickson’s costume designs – it has all been so beautifully crafted together to create an entirely holistic Middle-earth. The behind the scenes stories of the extraordinary technology and special effects are also a popular part of the exhibition and one of the reasons it has been in demand from science museums world wide. It helps to make science and innovation in a broad sense popular with large audiences. Te Papa is very pleased to be able to show New Zealand this exhibition for one last time,“ Mr Brewer said.

The exhibition first opened at Te Papa in December 2002 attracting 220,000 visitors (New Zealand’s most successful exhibition to date), and since then seen by over a million people worldwide. The exhibition has been significantly refreshed for this final New Zealand showing to include impressive new items from the film trilogy. These include the impressive and large scale 3.5 metre high ‘miniature’ of the great fortified city Minas Tirith and Corsair’s boat on display for the first time, preliminary sculptures of Gollum’s facial expressions used to develop his character. Other additions include Aragorn’s coronation crown, Arwen's coronation crown and dress, and Gandalf the White’s robes

This second season of The Lord of the Rings Motion Picture Trilogy - The Exhibition at Te Papa has been made possible though the support of New Line Cinema, Peter Jackson, and principal sponsor Air New Zealand.

ENDS

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