Season 2 of The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power just ended on Amazon Prime Video. It’s time to take stock for Amazon MGM Studios boss Jennifer Salke.
The last episode of Rings of Powerthe series derived from the writings of JRR Tolkien, was broadcast on October 3. And until a few days ago, it was difficult to measure its potential success. Box office figures are still systematically made public, but SVoD services have escaped this tradition by adopting a more opaque system. Concretely, only they decide how they communicatemore or less honestly, which did not fail to fuel criticism against them.
When the big media, especially an institution like Varietyhave the executives of these platforms on hand, they take advantage of it, knowing full well that their statements are configured to make a good impression. This is what happened in the interview with Kelly Day, vice president of international for Prime Video and her colleague Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon MGM Studios. The latter therefore had the opportunity to talk about Rings of Power and its attractiveness. According to her, she remains very strong.
The Rings of Power and the Power of the Rings
Variety therefore did not fail to ask Salke his opinion on the reactions to season 2:
“Obviously, the promotion and all that is on a different level [par rapport à la saison 1]. But that being said, at this point 55 million people have been involved since Season 2 launched. And if you look at the long term – what this company is doing with this type of asset, it’s an investment worth investing in. long run in the franchise – there are well over 150 million viewers watching and engaging with the series. So it seems very good to me. I think that’s the case for everyone. »
Figures supposed to satisfy the platform therefore, but which remain difficult to interpret. No one knows what such attention represents financially and strategically for an SVoD service of this magnitude.or even for such an affluent company. Especially since the series remains a special case. In addition to the massive production budgets (we are talking about 200 million for season 1), Amazon had spent approximately 250 million dollars to acquire the rights to the franchise from the Tolkien Estate, following a call for tenders which had turned in a fight between the streaming giants.
With almost half a billion spit out even before the production of season 2, Lord of the Rings Amazon version is indeed necessarily a long-term investment. However, its popularity does not appear monstrously higher than that of other Prime productions. In the same interview, we learn that the rom-com The idea of being with you attracted 50 million spectators for its launch alone. And it probably cost a bit less.
Towards a season 3, 4, 5?
In any case, the executive does not seem to want to stop the costs. At the time, the studio announced that it wanted to produce 5 seasons, for a total of 50 episodes. This is always the case.
« [Cet] commitment is not what motivates what we do. We will continue the series as long as we see consumers loving it and watching it. It’s a business. We need a lot of people to come. And there are a lot of people, so there is no debate about continuing the series. »
Note that it does not address the question of the evolution of the commitment of “consumers”. Season 1 suffered a serious drop in audiences between the first and last episode. A drop of 37% according to Forbesto be precise. Season 3 is not officially ordered by Amazon, but these statements add to those of actress Morfydd Clark (who told NME “It’s going to happen”) and the director and producer Charlotte Brändström (who had mentioned at RadioTimes.com of “good news”).
Related News :