J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” property could become a multi-billion dollar franchise on the scale of the Marvel and “Star Wars” cinematic universes.
That’s the verdict from ACF Investment Bank CEO Thomas Dey, the man who brokered the sale of the “Lord of the Rings” IP to Sweden’s Embracer Group in August.
Embracer landed the motion picture, video game, board game, merchandising, theme parks and stage production rights relating to both “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” franchises. In addition they have matching rights to other Middle-earth-related literary works authorized by the Tolkien Estate and HarperCollins.
Speaking at Mipcom Cannes, Dey says ‘Rings’ is one of about six “pieces of IP of this magnitude on the planet” and the deal with Embracer will “now have its potential unlocked”.
He adds: “I think this asset has the ability to get to [Marvel and Star Wars] scale. Someone has just needed to have the belief that this can be as ambitious as it can be.” Embracer’s focus is expected to be on gaming, the company’s “strongest area of growth and monetization”.
The comments come as Amazon Studios chief Jennifer Salke. has revealed that its lavish “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” TV series has had an impact on its subscribers.
Specifically Salke cites a “halo effect” has happened with ‘Rings of Power’ serving as a launchpad for its users to engage with other tentpole efforts on the streamer like “The Boys” and “The Wheel of Time”.
The series released episodes weekly on a Friday over the past two months and the season wrapped a few days ago.
Source: Deadline
