Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke explained why the massive budget for the Lord of the Rings TV series is more than worth it.
Salke and other female studio executives spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about their role in shaping the industry, and she was posed with a question about the $465 million price tag for the first season of the upcoming fantasy series, which makes it the most expensive series ever. For Salke, the property and the current market justifies the money spent.
"The market is crazy, as you saw with the Knives Out deal. [Netflix paid $469 million for two sequels.] This is a full season of a huge world-building show. The number is a sexy headline or a crazy headline that’s fun to click on, but that is really building the infrastructure of what will sustain the whole series," Salke said. "But it is a crazy world and various people on this Zoom, mostly Bela [Bajaria of Netflix] and me, have been in bidding situations where it starts to go incredibly high. There’s a lot of wooing and we have to make decisions on where we want to stretch and where we want to draw the line. As for how many people need to watch Lord of the Rings? A lot. (Laughs.) A giant, global audience needs to show up to it as appointment television, and we are pretty confident that that will happen."
Salke is referring to Netflix spending $469 million for two Knives Out sequels from writer/director Rian Johnson. That cost was presumably just to buy the rights to the two films and likely doesn't cover their production and marketing budgets, proving just how eager the streaming service was to land the follow-ups to the Oscar-nominated hit film.
For Amazon, Lord of the Rings is likely an even bigger draw. While every studio has been trying to land its own Game of Thrones, Amazon has the best chance given the existing appeal of Lord of the Rings as both books and films. The cost will enable them to bring all of the world's fantastical elements to life, meaning it has a strong chance of pulling a big audience.
Produced by Amazon Studios, The Lord of the Rings stars Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Nazanin Boniadi, Morfydd Clark, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Ema Horvath, Markella Kavenagh, Joseph Mawle, Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomvete, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, Daniel Weyman, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Maxim Baldry, Ian Blackburn, Kip Chapman, Anthony Crum, Maxine Cunliffe, Trystan Gravelle, Sir Lenny Henry, Thusitha Jayasundera, Fabian McCallum, Simon Merrells, Geoff Morrell, Peter Mullan, Lloyd Owen, Augustus Prew, Peter Tait, Alex Tarrant, Leon Wadham, Benjamin Walker and Sara Zwangobani. The series is expected to premiere on Amazon Prime Video in 2021.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter