- Platforms
Amazon’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’ to Cost $465M for Just One Season
The highly anticipated fantasy series will cost far more than previous record-breaking estimates: "This will be the largest television series ever made."

Amazon Studios' The Lord of the Rings television show is going to cost all the gold in the Lonely Mountain.
The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that Amazon will spend roughly NZ$650 million — $465 million in U.S. dollars — for just the first season of the show.
That's far above previous reported estimates that pegged the fantasy drama as costing an already record-breaking $500 million for multiple seasons of the show.
"What I can tell you is Amazon is going to spend about $650 million in season one alone," Stuart Nash, New Zealand minister for economic development and tourism, told Morning Report. "This is fantastic, it really is … this will be the largest television series ever made."
The figures were released as part of the New Zealand government's Official Information Act and initially reported by the New Zealand outlet Stuff. The documents also confirmed the studio's plan to film potentially five seasons in New Zealand — as well as possible, as-yet-unannounced spinoff series.
By comparison, HBO's Game of Thrones cost roughly $100 million to produce per season, with its per-episode cost starting at around $6 million for season one and eventually rising to around $15 million per episode in season eight.
Balls.
That's more money than all of my multiple selves across the multiverse make in a lifetime.
Jokes about using real life Hobbits aside (although I just farted when writing this) they seem pretty confident this is going to be a hit with audiences.