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Do you think movies have all the money? The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power scoffs at that notion! This Amazon Prime epic didn’t just break the bank; it obliterated it. Premiering in 2022, this show hauled in a monstrous $1 billion budget—yes, that’s a billion with a “B.” To put it in perspective, each episode alone cost a mind-bending $58 million. Let’s repeat it: each episode. So, while big-budget films might feel fancy, The Rings of Power threw around cash like confetti.
Forget the old days when TV had to sit quietly in the shadow of blockbuster films. TV shows today have become cash-hungry behemoths thanks to streaming, and The Rings of Power is the poster child. Collider reported that Amazon dropped around $465 million on production alone, with Deadline adding the rights and promotional costs to round up a cool billion. And here’s the kicker: that $465 million production budget trumps the highest-costliest film ever, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which landed at $447 million for the whole movie. Even Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy—yes, all three films—cost just $260 million.
Safe to say, the stakes are higher than Mount Doom. But what’s so special about this show? The Rings of Power sets its sights on Sauron’s rise, taking fans back centuries before Bilbo and Frodo ever got their hands on that pesky ring. With a canvas as grand as Middle-earth, Amazon wasn’t about to settle for anything less than perfection. Each frame, creature, and battle sequence is designed to feel as immersive as a movie, with budgets to match. The ambition? It looks like a billion bucks—literally.
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