The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is a film released on Wednesday, December 18, 2002, directed by Peter Jackson with a runtime of 179 minutes (2 hours, 59 minutes). It is the second part in a trilogy of films, following The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, also directed by Jackson. It is an adaptation of the book The Two Towers, the second part of the three-volume novel The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien, although some of the later events are held over to the third movie, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. It was very well received critically and was an enormous box-office success, making over $900 million worldwide (making it the fourth most successful film of all time at that point in time).