Still from “Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.”
New Line Cinema
The television program “Lord of the Rings” from Amazon is an expensive endeavor for the technology company.
On Friday, the New Zealand Minister of Economic Development and Tourism revealed that the fantasy drama will be one of the most expensive television series ever made, with its first prize for about $ 465 million.
“But what I can tell you is Amazon is going to spend about $ 650 million in the first season,” Stuart Nash told Morning Report. The figure he provided was in local currency.
The production figure is massive and probably the largest amount any studio has spent producing a single season television. By comparison, HBO’s “Game of Thrones” costs about $ 100 million per season. Season one episodes cost about $ 6 million each and eventually increased to about $ 15 million by season eight.
Amazon raised about $ 250 million in 2017 for the rights to the Tolkien property.
“This is going to be the biggest television series ever made,” Nash said.
The figures released as part of the New Zealand Government’s official law on information were first reported by the Stuff in New Zealand. The report indicated that Amazon wants to film five seasons in the country and possibly produce a spin-off series.
Amazon’s spending in New Zealand will result in a tax cut of about $ 114 million and is described by the country’s treasury as a ‘significant financial risk’. There is no limit to how much Amazon may spend, so New Zealand could put hundreds of millions of dollars on the line to subsidize the project.
However, the production is likely to give the local economy a big financial boost, as Amazon pays for local labor, hotels and food, among other things. Then there is the future tourism bump. Peter Jackson’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ and ‘Hobbit’ movie trilogies were a great blessing for New Zealand as they brought in travelers from all over the world.
The “Lord of the Rings” series is currently in production and is expected to begin in late 2021.