The The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power budget has been revealed, confirming it’s the most expensive TV show ever. This new series set in Middle-earth is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video. With a new adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s work premiering, this is how much it cost to create this fantasy show.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power budget
The budget for season 1 of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power clocks in at about $715 million. This is a gargantuan budget that is equivalent to about 5.1 million Amazon Prime subscriptions, which costs $139 a year. This figure is on top of the $250 million Amazon spent to acquire the rights to the Lord of the Rings franchise, making this the most expensive TV series ever made.
For comparison, Netflix’s popular TV series Stranger Things recently aired its fourth season, which is one of the most expensive TV productions of the year. Each episode of this nine-episode season cost about $30 million to produce, leading to a $270 million season.
With eight episodes in the first season, this return to Middle-earth will cost an average of approximately $89 million per episode, nearly three times the price of a single Stranger Things episode. However, the sum of the show’s entire budget is only estimated to be 0.15% of Amazon’s total 2021 earnings, a minuscule price to pay for this massive company.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is set thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogies. The show will cover the Second Age of Middle-earth, featuring the forging of the Rings of Power and the rise of the dark lord Sauron. The first two episodes are currently streaming on Prime Video.
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