Lord of the Rings TV Show Spent More on 1 Flopped Season Than the Whole Movie Franchise Did

Summary:

• To this day, J.R.R. Tolkien's novel The Lord of the Rings, and the entire world built around it, remains one of the most popular franchises.
• The latest addition, Prime Video 's The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, has received a very mixed reception.
• Despite a massive $465 million budget for season 1, the show has only a 38% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

How much money does a production company need to make a successful TV show? Of course, there is no one right answer to this question, as the cost of a show varies depending on the number of episodes, the genre, and the setting. All in all, no amount of money can guarantee that the show will be successful with viewers.

Some shows need a relatively small budget to be successful. For example, NBC's The Office remains one of the most memed and quoted shows on the Internet years after its finale, even though it didn't have a huge budget. Peaky Blinders, while given more money to create a believable period setting, also operated on very modest numbers.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, on the other hand, was given such an inflated budget that it made the news. To this day, the budget is about the only thing worth mentioning about the series, which is a shame.

What Is the Most Expensive TV Show?

Produced by Amazon Prime Video, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is the most expensive TV show ever made. Although the show was originally planned to have a somewhat understandable budget of $100-150 million per season, the first season alone managed to triple that figure.

Interestingly, the entire Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, which was released in the early 2000s and grossed a little over $3 billion at the box office, didn't cost nearly as much. Peter Jackson and the studios New Line Cinema and WingNut Films worked with $281 million and still managed to create three masterpieces.

Of course, considering the way technology has advanced since then, it would have been a crime not to splurge a little on CGI and special effects, but judging by the final cut, it doesn't seem like all the excess money went there. The Rings of Power doesn't look bad, but it doesn't look good for $465 million either.

According to viewers, who gave the show a tragic 38% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the show doesn't look that good either. But even more offensive is the way it has managed to misread beloved characters like Galadriel and Isildur, turning them into modernized and caricatured versions of themselves.

With season 2 set to premiere on Prime Video sometime in 2024, fans are gearing up. One would hope that a nearly $1 billion television show would learn from its own mistakes, but viewers prefer to prepare for the worst, just in case.

If you are interested in watching The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2 for yourself, be sure to stay tuned for all the news and behind-the-scenes updates so you don't miss the premiere date.