Amazon’s first season Under the spell of the Ring The TV show is reportedly costing the retail giant a downright hard-to-imagine $ 465 million to produce. To avoid having to read that again, this price tag is for one season only and no decimal is missing from the number above. “This will be the greatest television series ever made,” said New Zealand’s Minister of Economic Development and Tourism said
But this honor was already something of a known amount, after Amazon spent $ 250 million in 2017 to secure rights to the franchise, kicking off a series of stories describing the as-yet-unpublished show as “ the most expensive ” television production in history. was, with the big B number circulating its five-season rumors. This may be appropriate, as another episodic Lord of the Ringsadjacent production – Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy – currently holds the record for the most expensive film production in history, approximately $ 623 million (after tax credits).
To compare more lembas with lembas, here are some other big numbers:
- The last and most expensive season of that other fantasy TV series, Game of Thrones, costs only $ 90 million, or $ 15 million per episode.
- Disney spent “about 100 million” on season one of The Mandalorian
- Disney’s Marvel series reportedly costs a whopping $ 25 million per episode, which, given that there are nine episodes of it WandaVision, would be up to $ 225 million. Chump change!
- Adjusted for inflation, it cost Kevin Costner about $ 300 million in 1995 to build an entire island off the coast of Hawaii for Water world.
- The U.S. government plans to spend $ 451 million on lunar exploration by 2021, or about one Under the spell of the Ring season.
Since it’s a new show and all, there are some upfront costs to be expected in this first season, like sets and costumes, which can take some of the sting out of future seasons. But that’s really only a concern if you think like a non-billionaire. With a net worth of $ 193 billion, (outgoing) Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos can personally ensure that the series continues back and forth (and again and again and again) for some 400 seasons before things get a little tight.