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Since it was revealed in 2017 that Amazon had purchased the TV rights for The Lord of the Rings, anticipation has been growing quietly over the long-awaited return to Middle-earth in what promises to be one of the most expensive television shows ever produced. The long-awaited debut of The Rings of Power has finally arrived, marking the end of a five-year wait for the fruits of Amazon's labor, which are now finally ready for harvesting and may be picked.
However, as The Lord of the Rings series lived up to the expectations of being the most expensive series in the history of series production? That is made very clear by the price tag attached to each episode of The Rings of Power. Let’s discover what makes The Rings of Power the most expensive TV show ever.
The Rings Of Power: Synopsis And Characters
On Friday, September 2, 2022, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power streamed exclusively on Amazon Prime Video. Beginning in an age of relative peace, the series will be set in the legendary Second Age of Middle-earth, thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. However, rumors will soon begin to spread that evil has made a comeback, and the series will eventually focus on these rumors.
Galadriel, Elrond, the Dwarf King, Durin, and a new clan of Hobbits are just a few of the characters whose tales will be told as The Rings of Power travels across the vast landscapes of Middle-earth to tell them. Other characters whose tales will be told include Gandalf, Legolas, and Gandalf's son, Legolas Jr.
As one of the most formidable antagonists to ever appear in a book or on-screen threatens to cast a shadow over all of Middle-lands, earth's kingdoms are brought to glory and brought to ruin, heroes are tested like never before, and hope hangs by a thread. All of this takes place against the backdrop of one of the most epic battles ever fought on page and screen.
The Rings Of Power’s Budget And Cost Per Episode
It has been stated that the production budget for The Rings of Power is an astounding $465 million in total. However, this sum does not take into account the $250 million that Amazon spent to get the rights to produce the series from the estate of J.R.R. Tolkien. According to reports from the Wall Street Journal, the staggering sum of $715 million was spent on producing the first season of The Rings of Power for television audiences. This translates to an astounding 5.1 million annual memberships to Amazon Prime from customers.
When the production budget of $465 million for The Rings of Power is broken down and distributed throughout the show's eight episodes, the average cost of each episode comes out to be $58.1 million. However, if one includes the cost of obtaining the rights on top of that, it comes out to an astounding $89.4 million for each episode. Both of these factors combine to make The Rings of Power the most expensive television show that has ever been produced, and by a significant margin.
Just two weeks after the launch of House of the Dragon, this is a difficult moment to release a show of this caliber. The production cost equivalent of this show's first season is about 5.1 million annual Amazon Prime subscriptions. But Amazon has spent five years and this amount of money in an attempt to develop its own Game of Thrones-like series, which is destined to go universal.
How It Compares To The Most Expensive Shows
Long before The Rings of Power was slated to be released, the show was promoted as one of the most expensive pieces of entertainment ever created, and its enormous budget fully and truly cements that place. According to The Wall Street Journal, the budget for season 4 of Netflix's Stranger Things, which reportedly cost $30 million each episode, is the product that comes closest to competing with The Rings of Power's expense.
The television episodes that are part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, such as Loki and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, have a normal budget of $25 million per episode. Disney is the company that financially supports these projects. The enormous budget of $20 million per episode that was used for The Pacific on HBO helped the show earn a spot on this list. According to Variety, the budget for each episode of the Game of Thrones spin-off House of the Dragon is just under $20 million. This puts it in direct rivalry with The Rings of Power, which is the most direct competitor in the fantasy genre.
While other shows, such as the final season of Game of Thrones, have far larger budgets, others, such as The Mandalorian and Apple TV+'s See and The Morning Show, have to make do with much fewer budgets. Each episode of these shows has a budget of about $15 million. Considering this, The Rings of Power is the most expensive show ever made. Almost 20 years ago, the LOTR trilogy generated over $3 billion at the worldwide box office. Bezos and Amazon have great expectations that the most expensive show ever, The Rings of Power, would also be a success.
Sources: Game Revolution, AUGUSTMAN, HITC
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