In Hollywood, if you invest a massive amount of resources into a series, nothing less than runaway success is acceptable as a final result — and that certainly applies to Amazon Prime Video’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.”
With a mandate to find the next “Game of Thrones,” Amazon shelled out $250 million to the J.R.R. Tolkien estate just to acquire the rights to the late author’s fantasy novels and related materials — and then spent a reported $465 million to produce the eight-episode first season. (There’s a five-season plan in place.) As perhaps the most expensive series in TV history, it’s important to know what may constitute as a victory for Prime Video.