Most Expensive Series Ever: “Lord of the Rings” from Amazon that eats up a lot of money

New Zealand – The ambitious “Lord of the Rings” series from Amazon is eagerly awaiting all over the world. The first numbers now show just how costly the promising project will be.

Early in 2017, the Internet giant acquired the rights to the “Lord of the Rings” series. Since then, the project has been very quiet for a long time until the first details about the plot finally appeared in early 2021.

In the meantime, we also have more clarity when it comes to money: the first season of the mega series alone will devour the equivalent of $ 465 million (roughly € 388 million), such as The Hollywood Reporter mentioned.

For comparison: even Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi blockbuster “Tenet” (2020) had a “only” budget of $ 200 million (about € 167 million).

Also, the eighth and final season of “Game of Thrones” did not cost more than 100 million US dollars (about 83 million euros).

The Lord of the Rings series will be the most expensive (and therefore possibly the most ambitious) series at the moment At what time!

Stuart Nash, New Zealand’s Minister of Economic Development and Tourism confirmed the figure, saying, “That’s amazing, this is going to be the greatest TV series ever.”

Just like the original “Lord of the rings”Film trilogy (2001 to 2003), the series will be filmed again in breathtaking locations in New Zealand.

But if the first season alone costs a lot, how many seasons is Amazon actually targeting? Depending on the production plans, there could be a total of five seasons – and maybe some additional show series.

Of course, the enormous budget does not come from production and marketing alone. Only the rights of the prized Tolkien brand actually amount to an estimated $ 250 million.

In order to bring life to Middle-earth as authentically as possible, there are also significant start-up costs – for kits, outfits, and props, for example.

The New Zealand government hopes that cooperation with Amazon will boost its tourism profile, and thus it is supporting the project with tax breaks of $ 114 million, which the opposition considers secret support and is therefore highly criticized.

The government itself is well aware of the tremendous amount of money being raised, and thus it has already classified the epic series as a “high financial risk”.