# The Lord of the Rings online trailer (2000)

> New Line reported 1,671,000 first-day downloads of its online trilogy preview.

- Owner: New Line Cinema
- Kind: Film
- Sector: Entertainment
- Seed date: 2000-04-07
- Milestone date: 2000-05-15
- Date basis: Documented milestone; not a measured attention peak.
- Spread Score: 40 (Notable, provisional), v1.3
- Mechanics: Fandom mobilisation, Mystery & lore, Platform jump, Press loop, Pairing

## Summary

New Line released its trilogy preview online after coordinating fan-site countdowns. Fans examined frames, discussed it in chats and screened it at a convention. Apple reported over 12 million cumulative downloads by May 15.

## Timeline

- 2000-03-31 — New Line Cinema (Open web) — New Line emailed its mailing list to announce the April 7 Internet preview.
- 2000-04-03 — Calisuri / TheOneRing.net (Open web) — TheOneRing.net posted daily countdown images for the preview.
- 2000-04-06 — Tookish / TheOneRing.net (Group chats) — Tookish invited fans to gather in Barliman’s chatroom for the preview launch.

The full timeline, metrics and sources are on the case page, or via the Pro API (https://howitspread.com/developers).

Canonical URL: https://howitspread.com/cases/lotr-fellowship-trailer

Cite as: How It Spread (2026). “The Lord of the Rings online trailer (2000).” Case HIS-01552. Spread Score v1.3: 40/100. Updated 2026-10-23. https://howitspread.com/id/HIS-01552