Instead, what is said to be the most expensive TV series ever did what it set out to do – it pulled all the stops. “They built all these sets for us. They made it as real as possible, and we were able to go in and just react to it, really.” WATCHES | Markella Kavenagh hints at the big scope of Rings of Power’s budget:

Markella Kavenagh hints at Rings of Power’s big budget range

Huge budgets that change the landscape

This level of production is not surprising. it’s just another huge-budget series among a sea of ​​others that are slowly but surely changing both the television and film landscape. And with a five-season run costing about $465 million per season, Rings of Power could cost the studio upwards of $1 billion.
While that would put it in the league with the most expensive series out there, it’s not alone. According to Variety, Game of Thrones cost HBO about $100 million per season over its eight seasons between 2011 and 2019. The first two seasons of Netflix’s royal drama The Crown cost about $130 million, which according to the BBC , is comparable to the real cost of the royal family for the British government. Similarly, the fourth season of Netflix’s Stranger Things cost $40 million per episode over its nine episodes. HBO Max’s House of the Dragon , which debuted just a week before Rings of Power , was a comparatively cheap $200 million according to Variety — similar, though slightly lower, shape to Alberta-shot series The last of us.

A new era for television

While the television industry has always been big business, single-season budgets that exceeded Hollywood blockbusters (for comparison, Top Gun: Maverick and The Batman both had budgets of just $200 million) were not the norm. And University of Georgia screenwriter and professor of film and television Neil Landau explained that it’s not just the money invested in these shows that’s changed, but the way production companies — and more importantly, streamers — they see. Since 2010, stores like The New York Times, Vulture, the Wall Street Journal and Vanity fair noted the rising quality of television shows such as Breaking Bad, The Wire and Mad Men over film. But where they were mostly cable shows that were unique among the mostly closed series, that’s no longer the case. Big shows, serials and movies are becoming the norm for production companies and writers, who are starting to see television as a whole new genre.
“They call themselves filmmakers,” Landau said. “They make a feature film every week. You know, they don’t follow a formula or a template. It’s extremely cinematic TV for the writers.” Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler, left, Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas Sinclair, center, and Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson, right, in the fourth season of Stranger Things. The fourth season of the Netflix series cost $40 million per episode over its nine episodes. (Netflix) That, Landau said, came from the shift from network and cable TV to streamers — which don’t require commercial breaks or strict time blocks that often forced stories. They also don’t run the same risk of channel surfers leaving after the first few minutes of an episode — allowing them to write more cinematic stories, since streaming services know audiences are likely to stay in their ecosystem whether they like a particular show or not . But as streaming became the dominant way audiences consume media, the field became crowded. Since Netflix was the only option for most people looking to stream content, studios licensed their content to be hosted there. “That’s no longer true,” Landau said, noting how studios like Disney, Apple and HBO have all opted to make their own platforms instead of looking to Netflix. “[Audiences are] on all platforms. So now it’s like, who’s going to make the most noise to actually pay attention to the eyes when there’s over 500 options?” WATCHES | The ‘Epic’ Rings of Power series transports Lord of the Rings fans thousands of years into the past:

The ‘Epic’ Rings of Power series takes Lord of the Rings fans thousands of years into the past

How to “Break Through the Clutter of the Streaming Wars”

Matthew Belloni, former editor of The Hollywood Reporter and founding partner of the news station Puck, says this is driving studios and streamers to spend big on tentpole series. The name of the game has something remarkable enough to bring the audience into the ecosystem. As long as Rings of Power captures attention — whether through cinematic storytelling, or simple curiosity about its high price tag — it will have done its job. And, according to Belloni, it seems to be working. “The success of this show will validate his strategy of going big,” Belloni said. “And … if nothing else, everyone else is learning from HBO Max’s experience with Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon that this is the way to go. through the mess of the streaming wars.”

Canadian, indie film in danger of being swamped

But Toronto film and television producer Marina Cordoni says success comes at a price for cinema — especially Canadian cinema. During the pandemic shutdown and even after, theaters struggled to survive and turn a profit. This made it immeasurably harder for movies to turn a profit. And while blockbusters can ride out the storm and still manage to pull in audiences, Cordoni said it makes it almost impossible for indie films to find their audience. At the same time, the tendency of people to stay home to watch shows has led to the proliferation of large film-style series mainly from America — largely at the expense of domestic films. “All I’m hearing from traditional networks and or streamers is that they’re moving away from cinema and focusing on series,” he said. “Streamers have a monopoly on the audience now because people don’t have to leave their homes.” If this continues, he said, it could have serious consequences for cinema. “Otherwise,” he said, “I think we’re going to lose it and lose our place in the world, in a sense, on the world stage.”