United Artists acquired the film rights to J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings in 1969.
Tolkien sold the rights to the two works to United Artists for a reported £100,000. The agreement concerned motion-picture rights and helped make later screen adaptations possible, although the films were not produced immediately. The deal also included rights connected with merchandising and other uses.
United Artists released the animated feature The Lord of the Rings in 1978, directed by Ralph Bakshi. That film adapted much of the first half of the story and used rotoscoping for many scenes. The live-action trilogy directed by Peter Jackson was produced and distributed through other companies decades later.
A common mix-up is to credit the later film rights history entirely to New Line Cinema. New Line handled Jackson’s trilogy, but United Artists was the company that acquired Tolkien’s film rights in the 1969 transaction.