Previously came rumors that Amazon Studios was spending a billion dollars to garner the rights, produce and market multiple seasons (up to five) of its planned series set in the world of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings”.
A The Live Feed report today suggests those were spot on with Amazon reportedly spending roughly $465 million in U.S. dollars on just the first season alone.
Stuart Nash, New Zealand minister for economic development and tourism, told The Morning Report this week: “What I can tell you is Amazon is going to spend about $650 million [New Zealand Dollars] in season one alone… This is fantastic, it really is … this will be the largest television series ever made.”
Those numbers were released as part of the government’s Official Information Act. The documents also confirm the studio’s plan to film potentially five seasons in New Zealand and a possible and as-yet-unannounced spin-off series.
To put things in comparison, Marvel’s “Falcon and the Winter Soldier” is the most expensive TV series made to date at around $25 million per episode, while HBO’s “Game of Thrones” cost up to $15 million per episode in its final season.
Amazon’s spending will reportedly trigger a tax rebate of $114 million U.S. dollars. The series is in production for a planned debut later this year.
