I had read the LoTR and parts of UT and the Sil when the movie was released (I saw it twice opening day, and I had school!). I knew that no matter what for me the books would come out unscathed. For example, I read Battlefield Earth (it took me most of a summer) and loved it. Then the movie bombed, very badly and everyone kind of joked about it. The worst thing that happened was those people who weren't going to read the book before the movie still didn't read the book.
But with FoTR the movie things were different. Most of my friends (and remember I was in high school, where people stay away, far away from books...nasty little buggers) wanted to read at least the Fellowship before the movies came out and everyone ended up finishing the entire book. One of my friends finished it in a week! The movie had a positive impact over the broad spectrum, but did not affect the way I saw the book. In fact much of PJ's interpretation is not far off of my own, so that helped.
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"White!" he sneered. "It serves as a beginning. White cloth may be dyed. The white page can be overwritten; and the white light can be broken." - Saruman
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