Amazon Prime Wasted $465M on a Show That No One Wants to Watch Anymore

Summary:

• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is a fantasy television series based on J.R.R. Tolkien's universe.
• The show was created by Amazon Prime Video with a reported budget of $58.1 million per episode.
• However, despite the production costs, the first season has only a 38% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Expensive may not always mean good. Despite the fact that big numbers in the budgets or salaries of celebrities will always attract the attention of ordinary people, they are not always an indicator of quality. Unfortunately, even the largest studios with the most serious resources can slip and produce low-quality content regardless of its cost.

Whereas in movies it is always possible to judge the commercial success of a production based on box office receipts, in television, especially on streaming platforms, it is a little more difficult to evaluate the outcome from the outside. However, one metric will always remain the same, and that is audience's response.

Unfortunately, in 2022, Amazon Prime Video released its most expensive project, which also turned out to be one of the most disastrous in the streaming service's history. To make matters worse, the show managed to offend the sensibilities of the massive fan base of Tolkien's world.

Why Is The Rings of Power Bad?

Considering how much work and money went into building the sets and creating the visuals for the show, including all the special effects, it would have been a tragedy for The Rings of Power to be bad in this department. The majority of both casual viewers and critics agree that the show excelled in all things visual.

However, it is everything else that lacks the magnitude to impress the audience.

When approaching source material that is so important to so many people, the creative team must be aware of the outrage that poor execution can cause. This is exactly what The Rings of Power faced from J.R.R. Tolkien's fans.

Many feel that the story lacks consistency, that beloved characters do not behave as they were written, and that the entire plot feels more like fan fiction than a gesture of appreciation for the fantasy universe the author created. Every other review on Rotten Tomatoes only proves how few reasons people have found to enjoy the show.

The drastic disparity between the amount of money spent to create the show and the number of reviews trashing it shows that no budget can hide the holes in the lore. To many, The Rings of Power feels like a purely commercial project, a shallow story wrapped in shiny packaging.

However, the show is set to return in 2024 with its second season. So if you want to check it out and see if all the criticism has been heard and taken into account in production, keep an eye out for the premiere date!

Source: Wall Street Journal