When it was announced that Amazon was spending nearly $250 million to land the rights to “The Lord of the Rings,” the average person was taken aback by the sheer cost to gain the rights to tell the story. Then it was announced that the first season of the series, only eight episodes, would cost almost $500 million to produce. This is a huge amount of money, even in an era when streamers are spending absurd money to become top dog. But according to Amazon, there is a reason why the company is willing to spend this much on the property— “The Lord of the Rings” is special.
Speaking to Time, Amazon executives Jeff Bezos and Jennifer Salke make it abundantly clear that the high price of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” is because this is the series that will help define the future of the Prime Video streaming service. Sure, they’re spending a lot of money, but they’re doing so for a purpose.
“The jewels of the crown are the big tentpole shows that invite in the whole family,” said Salke, head of Amazon Studios. “And this is the crown jewel.”
Bezos added, “Middle-earth is such a beloved world, and telling the story of the forging of the Rings of Power is a privilege and a responsibility. I hope we do Tolkien’s work justice. It goes beyond making a commercially successful show. Everyone working on the show read these stories as kids and our hearts are in it.”
So, judging by these words, ‘The Rings of Power’ is not only an attempt to draw viewers and subscribers to the Prime Video platform, it’s the show that is going to lead the way for the streaming service. There’s so much confidence at Amazon that the series is going to do well, it’s being reported that the budget for Season 2 of the show is just as much as the first eight episodes, putting the cost for two seasons at nearly $1 billion. Even for a company as large as Amazon, that’s a lot of money to spend on one TV series.
Will the devoted ‘Rings’ fans fall in love with ‘The Rings of Power?’ Will it define the future of streaming series? We’ll find out when the show debuts on Prime Video on September 2.