Tolkien sold the movie rights to both the Hobbit and LOTR in 1969 for £100,000. Source is an interesting interview with Christopher Tolkien in Le Monde: https:

Tolkien sold the movie rights to both the Hobbit and LOTR in 1969 for £100,000. Source is an interesting interview with Christopher Tolkien in Le Monde: https://web.archive.org/web/20180709130054/https://www.worldcrunch.com/culture-society/my-father039s-quotevisceratedquot-work-son-of-hobbit-scribe-jrr-tolkien-finally-speaks-out https://web.archive.org/web/20180709130054/https://www.world... ... which is translated from the French original: https://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2012/07/05/tolkien-l-anneau-de-la-discorde_1729858_3246.html https://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2012/07/05/tolkien-l-...