Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series will be the most expensive show ever made
Amazon’s Lord of the Rings prequel series is set to be the most expensive TV show ever made.
If you have $500 million lying around, you too could produce a Lord of the Rings TV show.
Amazon opened up the checkbook to acquire the rights to the Lord of the Rings from the estate of J.R.R. Tolkien and is prepared to make the series the most expensive TV show ever made.
According to Reuters, Amazon paid $250 million to acquire the rights from the Tolkien estate and is spending another $250 million to make two seasons of their Lord of the Rings prequel series. It remains to be seen how many episodes will be in each season, but I think it will be 10 episodes to coincide with the majority of other Amazon Originals. Sneaky Pete, The Man in the High Castle, Bosch Transparent, Mozart in the Jungle all had 10 episodes in their seasons.
In total, there will be five seasons with a reported $1 billion price tag.
Hot Read: When will the Lord of the Rings series be on Amazon?
That means the price tag for each episode based on a 10-episode season means each episode will cost $25 million to make. By comparison, Game of Thrones spends about $15 million per episode now. The total could be slightly higher for the final season. Nevertheless, Amazon is well out in front of producing the most expensive series ever made and this all comes without a cast or a defined storyline.
We know the series will be a prequel set before the events of Peter Jackson’s legendary trilogy, which cost less than the $500 million the show will cost for Amazon, but we don’t know when or where the series will take place and there is no cast for the show yet.
This is all very much in its infancy but it’s very encouraging to see Amazon is putting their money where their mouth is. In 2017, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos issued a mandate to make a show that had the international appeal of Game of Thrones.
The Lord of the Rings series could be global hit Amazon desperately needs to compete in the streaming wars with Netflix and the rising power that is Hulu.
There is no release date set for Lord of the Rings and we’re still waiting on casting news, producers and directors to join the team on what will be the most expensive show ever made.