Lord Of The Rings: Rings Of Power Has Achieved A Huge Record
Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is entering a crowded streaming marketplace, but it is already crushing records.
This article is more than 2 years old
Amazon Prime is steadily positioning itself as one of the streaming game’s top players. With originals like The Marvelous Ms. Maisel, The Boys, and Good Omens, they set themselves up as more than just a home for outside projects. One tactic that the company has taken in the last few years is adapting popular novel series into TV. Bosch, Jack Ryan, Reacher, The Wheel of Time, and The Terminal List have all found a home with the streamer, and most have been released to positive reviews. One thing Amazon has been doing to show they are ready to play in the deep end of the pool is spending large amounts of money on well-known properties. They picked up the rights to the father of all fantasy in Lord of the Rings. Their first attempt to bring that property to the screen, The Rings of Power, has built its first audience.
According to Deadline, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is the most significant release in Amazon’s 15-year history. The first two episodes were released on the streamer on September 1 and picked up a massive 25 million viewers. Jennifer Salke, president of Amazon Studios, thanked the Tolkien Estate for their contributions and the hard work of the two showrunners, J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay. With a purchase price of $250 million, the franchise has some big money to make for the streamer before it can be seen as a profitable investment. The most significant release in the studio’s history is a great first step. The showrunners have some latitude to build on the momentum as Amazon committed to a five-season run when they picked up the rights. So that 25 million viewership number could multiply exponentially by the time Season 5 premieres.
The series takes place thousands of years before the events of The Lord of the Rings and sees a young Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) as she navigates the threatening end of peace. The series will see the forging of the rings of power, the last alliance between elves and men, the rise of Sauron, and other happenings of the Second Age of Middle Earth. While Amazon had reasonable expectations that the series would be massively successful with such a vast fanbase, that kind of fanbase also brings a significant number of trolls with it. Before the first two episodes even dropped, the site was review bombed. The company responded by turning off the customer rating feature.
The last few weeks have been a great time for fans of the fantasy world as they have seen the premieres of two significant prequels to massive franchises. While Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power was released to enormous viewership, it comes on the heels of huge viewership to the Game of Thrones franchise with House of the Dragon on HBO. As the next episodes release each week, the two will go head-to-head, competing for the attention of fans. Time will tell if the prequel will be able to hold to the 25 million viewers for the whole season.
