The first season of Amazon's Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power was the most expensive show ever produced per episode. But newly revealed figures suggest it may have been a huge waste of money.
As we made clear in our review of the Rings of Power, this project was almost invariably doomed to fail. The show was trying to satisfy an incredibly diverse audience, from those with an intimate knowledge of Tolkien's Legendarium, to those who have simply seen the Peter Jackson movies.
They had to adapt a lot of the material to work in a new medium, and they were also severely limited by the licensing agreement, which only made the whole show more confusing. That said, we mostly enjoyed it, unlike a great many others…
- We recommend the tragic story of Beren and Lúthien to you all.
Rings of Power Figures Expose Terrible Audience Retention
As reported by Forbes, the Rings of Power was only able to retain 37% of viewers throughout the course of the first season:
Amazon’s Lord Of The Rings drama, The Rings of Power, was a flop. Not only was it snubbed almost entirely during awards season, it turns out that a mere 37% of people who started the show finished it.
Those seem like poor figures for a show that cost about $90 million per episode, but according to Amazon Prime studio chief Jen Salke in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, it's not being considered a failure internally:
This desire to paint the show as anything less than a success — it’s not reflective of any conversation I’m having internally
The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. It isn't a perfect show by any stretch, but we would be surprised if Amazon do something drastic.
Did you finish Rings of Power? If not, you're probably missing some good LotR in your life, check out the anime film coming next year.
Speaking of big film franchises moving to the small screen: