Also from “The Lord of the Rings: The Brotherhood of the Ring”.
New Line Cinema
Amazon’s “Lord of the Rings” TV show is shaping up to be a costly endeavor for the tech company.
On Friday, the New Zealand Minister of Economic Development and Tourism revealed that the fantastic drama will be one of the most expensive television series ever made, with a season 1 price of about $ 465 million.
“But what I can tell you is that Amazon will spend about $ 650 million in the first season alone,” Stuart Nash told Morning Report. The figure he provided was in local currency.
The production figure is massive and probably the largest amount spent by any studio to produce a single television season. For comparison, HBO’s “Game of Thrones” cost about $ 100 million a season. Season 1 episodes cost about $ 6 million each, and eventually reached about $ 15 million by season eight.
Amazon raised approximately $ 250 million for Tolkien’s property rights in 2017.
“This is going to be the biggest television series ever made,” Nash said.
The figures, published as part of the New Zealand Government’s Official Information Act, were first reported by the New Zealand Stuff Press. His report indicated that Amazon is looking to film five seasons in the country and possibly produce a spin-off series.
Amazon’s spending in New Zealand will trigger a tax cut of about $ 114 million and has been reported as a “significant financial risk” by the country’s treasury. There is no cap on how much Amazon is allowed to spend, and therefore New Zealand could be available for hundreds of millions of dollars to help fund the project.
However, production is likely to bring a major financial boost to the local economy, as Amazon pays for local labor, hotels and food, among other things. Then there is the future of tourism. Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” and “Hobbit” trilogies have been a great asset to New Zealand as they have brought travelers from all over the world.
The “Lord of the Rings” series is currently in production and is expected to debut at the end of 2021.