20 Most Important Blockbusters That Changed Cinema Forever

6. The Lord Of The Rings

To pick out the effect of the individual films in The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy is a rather pointless effort; just as the story only truly works with all three together, to assess the impact they had on blockbuster cinema requires the gigantic enterprise to be taken in as a whole.

For the fantasy genre Peter Jackson's first Middle Earth trilogy will remain a touchstone for years to come. Deftly balancing the epic world-shaking events with small personal moments, it was the adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's tome that fans had been craving and audiences hadn't even realise they wanted. And just about every high fantasy movie since has gone for the same approach, with varying degrees of success.

The production aspect reached much further than just the genre however. Shooting the series back-to-back kept costs down slightly, while the marketability of a continuing trilogy helped bring instalment based filmmaking to the fore. The films also led to the first big shake-up of how DVD releases were executed; the Extended Editions set a new high bar for director's cuts and the comprehensive behind-the-scenes coverage made interactive menus and scene select, which had been touted as genuine special features just a few years before, feel archaic.