Amazon's The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has a huge budget, and it's potentially put the show at a disadvantage. Of course, every film and television show needs plenty of funding to get made. It's necessary for all projects if they have any chance of being well-made and widely distributed. Costumes, sets, actors, special effects, crew members, equipment, and everything else that is an essential part of filmmaking all come with a cost. With this in mind, it'd be easy to assume that a bigger budget is better. However, there can be too much of a good thing.
Initially, the show's first season was supposed to cost roughly $100-150 million, but the finished product ended up having a price tag near $465 million. It's hard to think of a reason for Rings of Power's ballooning budget other than it being mismanaged. The amount of money spent isn't necessarily the problem. What's worrisome, however, is the willingness to stretch the budget further; it suggests a lack of discipline on behalf of the creative team. There's debate about whether Sauron or Morgoth is the more powerful villain in Lord of the Rings lore, but Amazon itself might be a worthy contender.
Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings Trilogy Proves Less Is More
There's no denying it: Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy had a huge budget. Filming for the trilogy began in late 1999, with all three films being shot together. The budget for the entire trilogy was $281 million - equivalent to $436.5 million in 2020 (when Rings of Power began production). When all was said and done, Jackson's films combined to reach an 11-hour, 26-minute runtime. That comes out to roughly $38.4 million per hour of completed film. Considering the critical acclaim and plethora of awards The Lord of the Rings earned, as well as the universal love and adoration of fans it gained, that's a reasonable price.
The majority of the production process of The Lord of the Rings was littered with the need to get creative and solve problems in resourceful ways. The trilogy's budget wasn't flexible. That forced Jackson, his producers, and the crew to stick to it. Cuts occasionally had to be made, and sacrifices were often required. Everyone involved in the project poured their blood, sweat, and tears into the trilogy because it meant something to them. At a certain point, money could no longer be an incentive. Passion often had to pay the bills, and that truth is evident when looking at the finished product.
Rings of Power's Endless Resources Could Be The Death Of Creativity
Orson Welles famously said, "The enemy of art is the absence of limitations." Many of the best directors in the film industry would probably agree. Limitations and boundaries demand that creativity and resourcefulness come forward. If challenges don't get met, failure is guaranteed. That is the problem with Rings of Power - resistance arose and demanded ingenuity, but rather than confronting issues with resourcefulness, Amazon attempted to remove obstacles by increasing the budget. The removal of budgetary constraints only succeeded in guaranteeing the end of passionate problem-solving. A lack of boundaries indicates that nothing is at stake.
Season 1 of Rings of Power has a total runtime of 9 hours and 17 minutes, which means roughly $50.1 million was spent for every hour of the show. That's substantially more than what Jackson's The Lord of the Rings cost by comparison, and there's a marked difference in the quality of the two productions. Rings of Power's lore changes, uneven writing, and overly-polished look have been criticized (among many other things), while Jackson's films have very few flaws. Unfortunately, no amount of financing can fix The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power's issues. Amazon believes perfection is available for purchase, but reality definitively says otherwise.