We talk a lot about the money Netflix throws around, and they do spend a lot to acquire their gigantic library of films and TV shows. However they’re seriously slacking compared to Amazon and the cheddar they’re dropping on the Lord of the Rings series. While we had heard early reports of maybe $1B across two guaranteed seasons, the actual amount for season has been revealed and it’s friggin’ mind-blowing.
In a recent interview (via THR), New Zealand’s Minister for Economic Development and Tourism, Stuart Nash, spilled the beans on those big spenders at Amazon…
“But what I can tell you is Amazon is going to spend about $650 million [in New Zealand currency] in season one alone. I think what we have got out of Amazon in terms of the MOU and the industry and how we’re going to train people and our ability to use footage for tourism, the ability to leverage off a lot of what Amazon is doing, is fantastic.”
Doing the math, the exchange rate on $650M in New Zealand currency equals about $465M in U.S. dollars. Damn. That buys a lot of Dwarven treasure. I bet the New Zealand suits’ eyes lit up with desire like Boromir when he got his hands on the One Ring…
So yeah, and that’s just for one damn season, making it the most expensive show ever. That $1B figure is well in reach, because you know Jeff Bezos is going to want to ramp shit up for that second season.
The Lord of the Rings has no official release date but you can bet it’ll be on Amazon Prime before too long. Gotta recoup that investment!
