Suggesting that Jeff Bezos made a significant investment in Rings of Power is putting it mildly. According to The Ankler, Amazon paid $250 million for the global rights to Tolkien’s works, with the first season alone reportedly costing around $465 million to produce. Now approaching its third season—of a planned five—the series is widely described by industry insiders as the most expensive show ever made. It is also, notably, one of the most divisive.
New reports via The Ankler suggest that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is shielding Rings of Power from cancelation—but not necessarily out of personal enthusiasm. From a financial standpoint, the company may have little flexibility.
Audience Backlash and Internal Support
As That Park Place reported in 2025, Amazon’s deal with the Tolkien Estate included a significant stipulation: a “kill fee.” For every season not produced, the company would owe $20 million to the author’s estate. With total investment in the project already potentially exceeding $1 billion, continuing production may be more financially practical than stepping away.
Jeff Bezos and wife Lauren Sanchez – YouTube, The Lazy Show
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Audiences, however, have clearly lost interest. According to a third-party ratings report, viewership for the second season was down 60% from the first. On Criticless, the series currently holds a 6% “Heinous” score with 71 user ratings—less a lukewarm reception than a clear rejection. If that trajectory holds, Rings of Power could ultimately stand as one of the most expensive miscalculations Jeff Bezos ever made.
Still, there are signs of internal commitment. Prime Video’s global head of television, Peter Friedlander, reportedly visited the set during production of season three and reassured the creative team that Rings of Power is “protected for its run,” with the opportunity to complete its full story.
For those involved in the series, that promise carries particular weight at a time when the broader industry is tightening budgets and scaling back ambitious projects. For those weary of seeing Tolkien’s legacy tarnished, it may only provide a sense of dread.
A Flagship for Prime Video
Rings of Power was positioned as Prime Video’s flagship series—an ambitious attempt to rival HBO’s Game of Thrones in both scale and spectacle. As viewership declined and audience backlash intensified, many expected Jeff Bezos to reconsider the project. Yet Amazon appears too heavily invested to turn back now. For those with a stake in the series—financial, creative, or simply as viewers—its continuation seems all but inevitable.
Robert Aramayo as Elrond in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2024), Amazon MGM Studios
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At the same time, a growing sense of disillusionment has emerged among fans of Middle-earth, many of whom feel that Tolkien’s legacy has been diluted with each new Lord of the Rings adaptation. That sentiment prompts a lingering question: what other, potentially stronger projects were left unrealized as Amazon poured so much of its resources into this one?
Looking Ahead: Legacy or Cautionary Tale
Ultimately, Rings of Power may go down in history as one of the most ambitious—and expensive—television experiments of the streaming era. It is a rare example where creative vision, financial stakes, and contractual obligations converge so heavily that cancellation is no longer simply a matter of audience approval.
Owain Arthur as Prince Durin IV; Sophia Nomvete as Princess Disa in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2024), Amazon MGM Studios
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For now, Amazon’s commitment—and Jeff Bezos’s protection—ensures that Rings of Power will reach its full five-season arc, giving any lingering fans and critics alike the chance to assess its legacy in full, whether they want it or not.
Will you be watching Rings of Power seasons 3, 4, and 5? Let us know in the comments!
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This is nothing more than a refusal to accept failure. It’s pride gone wrong.
Sunk cost fallacy is no way to stay a brazillionaire, Jeff. If each season costs $100m, a $60m kill fee is worth way more than additional credibility damage this show does to the Amazon brand. Plus, you could buy another super yacht to tow behind your other two super yachts and create a Waterworld-esque flotilla! Everyone secretly wants to have a flotilla.
I think this is my favorite soft-pedal language in the whole article: “Ultimately, Rings of Power may go down in history as one of the most ambitious—and expensive—television experiments of the streaming era.” I prefer “Bloated, overpriced, overhyped, utter, unambiguous, and catastrophic failure” over “ambitious” or “expensive”
It is too much to hope an asteroid hits the Earth before the next season airs? Oh, never mind. They say the roaches will still survive, which includes all the show runners and cast. On the bright side if all life on earth, except aforementioned roaches, were gone I would be too dead to risk accidentally catching a glimpse of the show or a review out of the corner of my eye, seeing trailers, or (heaven forfend) a full episode.
Geoff Bozo can spend his money however he sees fit, but that don’t mean i gotta pay him to watch his feminist drivel!!!
I loved Amazon when they only sold books and cd’s as it was the only place i could get english language books at a fair price and they had a gigantic selection.
Today Amazon is the epitome of enshitification..
Yes, and I would add that:
– “at a fair price”:
But, those low prices were subsidised at the time. This was to put Barns & Noble, etc. out of business. Once the competition was vanquished, the prices went up, and are now at the pain-point, optimised to crush you, with AI algorithms. This is, as you say, the “Enshittification” phase of business strategy.
The vanity project of a globalist who wants to destroy White culture. Great…
One issue with working on a failed project is: Where is the passion coming from? You’ll just get people going through the motions, rather than pouring their heart into the work. They’ll save their best ideas for something that people might actually watch.
All this is exacerbated by the fact these shows are DEI, made by DEI.
This journalist writes: [“Ultimately, Rings of Power may go down in history as one of the most ambitious—and expensive—television experiments of the streaming era”]
>SIGH<
Throwing money at a project, and making it woke, is the opposite of "ambitious".
Expensive, perhaps, but where is the “ambition”? Where is the “experimental” element? It's totally bland, uninspired, corporate, anti-White, anti-male, safe-space, snowflake, derivative woke slop, with zero innovation.
As big as those numbers sound to you and I, they’re not much more then drop in Bezos’ bucket. Say the whole shebang costs 1 billion in the end. That’s 0.45% of his assets. That’s nothing. Sure he probably would have wanted to make more money with the project, but he can just shrug it off.
As for The Lord of the Rings, it has become pretty much as dead a franchise then Star Wars. Think about it: the original trilogy of movies (ep 4-6 / lotr) is equally beloved, the second trilogy (ep 1-3 / hobbit) is seen as flawed entries but still of the original spirit, what ever came after is corporate garbage (from ep 6-8 to the Accolite / rings of power, war of the rohirrim) and the future looks bleak (mandalorian movie, ray movies etc / humt for gollum, stephen colbert presents LotR).
Best one can do is ignore everything to comes along, sad as it may be. Apathy and 0 engagement is stronger then hate watching by far.
And get physical copies of the old stuff, as long as they are available and not retroactively changed (looking at you, Star Wars) or, god help us, modified to appeal to the m0d3rn aUdI3nCe.
Let Bezos finish it– hopefully the majority of consumers will continue to ignore it, and it can serve as a cautionary tale for the next unqualified misfit that has the arrogance to try and vandalize THE LORD OF THE RINGS; and with any luck the bulk of moviegoers will avoid HUNT FOR GOLLUM and Colbert’s SHADOWS OF THE PAST like the plague…