The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power | Amazon | September 2, 2022

[Torontofan]

I think the big issue is the show sort of made an enemy of the tolkien fanbase. 

[Valonqar]

29 minutes ago, Torontofan said:

I think the big issue is the show sort of made an enemy of the tolkien fanbase. 

 

oh you mean the loud minority. The show was made for fans of LOTR movies and the noobs and obviously worked for them given high viewership. It trended #1 on IMDB with men age 30-44 and 45 and up. You can see the breakdown here (my last post):

 

https://forums.boxofficetheory.com/topic/29472-the-streaming-tracking-thread/page/70/#comments

 

So Tolkien fanbase grudge is just a drop in a sea of approval.

Edited January 5, 2023 by Valonqar

[elcaballero]

If there was one show where I could open up the streaming black box and see the financials, it'd probably be this one.

[kayumanggi]

Have learned that this and House of the Dragon are the two most pirated shows of 2022.

[Ozymandias]

On 1/5/2023 at 3:10 PM, Torontofan said:

I think the big issue is the show sort of made an enemy of the tolkien fanbase. 

 

I think the Tolkien fandom and people in general would've been more receptive to Rings of Power if it was actually well made on a basic film making level, its remarkably similar to the Star Wars prequels in that the writing, direction, and performances all range from flat to just terrible with often atrocious dialogue.  Would people have actually cared about Midichlorians in The Phantom Menace if that movie was actually great? Probably not, or at least not nearly as much. 

 

Also, like the Star Wars prequels, outside of some good establishing shots ROP is ugly as shit, its like all the positive reviews are trying to have something positive to say by constantly reminding us of the price tag and the 'amazing visuals.'  Its overly lit and the costume designs/sets often look exactly like that, costumes/sets.  One of the things PJ's Lord of the Rings trilogy and even HBO's Game of Thrones(and by extension House of the Dragon) did extremely well is that they went out of their way to make these worlds feel like real history that could've actually existed at one point thousands of years ago.  In Rings of Power, we get scenes like Galadriel stepping onto a boat in slow motion for 20 seconds with blaring music playing while the Numenorean soldiers kids in plastic rubber Halloween costumes look on in awe.

 

Amazon and its defenders like to say that Rings of Power has been attacked by unreasonable bigots(some of which is true) and 'Tolkien purists', so much so that they've seemingly gone all in on it as a defensive marketing strategy(probably because they know its dull as shit and there's nothing else to talk about but I digress).  You can hardly read a damn thing about this show anywhere without the articles bringing up 'most expensive show evah!' that was 'unfairly attacked/trolled/review bombed' by opportunistic bigots.  Like yeah, obviously there's some of that but the marketing of successful shows and interviews of its producers/actors don't entirely focus on this kind of shit. 

 

Whenever I see something Rings of Power related trending on twitter still its usually obvious 'multi-fandom' & 'shipping' bots or people who've somehow been tricked into thinking a sleazy trillion dollar company's cynical billion dollar money making venture is some kind of noble cause in the fight against extremism.

 

I won't be watching Season 2 because Tolkien's meticulous legendarium is something I actually care a lot about and I don't want to get annoyed and make more posts like this(which I've probably already made too many of), but I have a feeling its gonna be the laughing stock of the 2020's if it makes it to 5 seasons with the same producers/showrunners in charge.

Edited January 9, 2023 by Ozymandias

[Valonqar]

@Ozymandias

 

 outside of some good establishing shots ROP is ugly as shit

 

Explains why it didn't get nominated for American Society of Cinematographers while HOTD got in for 2 Episodes, Lord of the Tides and The Green Council. I know that fans complain about HOTD's dissaturated look but cinematographers obviously liked it and dismissed ROP's cotton candy vomit palette. 

[CaptNathanBrittles]

On 1/5/2023 at 9:39 PM, Valonqar said:

 

oh you mean the loud minority. The show was made for fans of LOTR movies and the noobs and obviously worked for them given high viewership. It trended #1 on IMDB with men age 30-44 and 45 and up. You can see the breakdown here (my last post):

 

https://forums.boxofficetheory.com/topic/29472-the-streaming-tracking-thread/page/70/#comments

 

So Tolkien fanbase grudge is just a drop in a sea of approval.

 

? The show's rating for men age 30-44 is 6.7. 45+ is 6.9.

 

Compare that with the worst received Peter Jackson movie - THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES which has a 7.3 rating in both those age groups from a larger number of votes (220k vs 80k).

[CaptainJackSparrow]

So how did this series turn out in terms of viewership? A success? Mixed results? Failure?

[Napoleon]

On 3/3/2023 at 6:56 PM, CaptainJackSparrow said:

So how did this series turn out in terms of viewership? A success? Mixed results? Failure?

Objectively, it was a hit. Rings of Power was the 15th most consumed original series in the U.S. last year, and second from Amazon (behind The Boys, counting all of seasons). It beat all Disney+ originals.

[dudalb]

It was a huge sucess for Amazon from a finaicnial point of view.

But whether it was good or not has audiences divided.

[Ozymandias]

Holy shit, only about 1 in 3 finished the show(via The Hollywood Reporter)

 

Quote

sources confirm that The Rings of Power had a 37 percent domestic completion rate (customers who watched the entire series). Overseas, it reached 45 percent. (A 50 percent completion rate would be a solid but not spectacular result, according to insiders)

 

 

Objective hit!

[Valonqar]

11 hours ago, Ozymandias said:

Holy shit, only about 1 in 3 finished the show(via The Hollywood Reporter)

 

 

 

Objective hit!

 

Those are objectively flop numbers that shouldn't surprise anyone cause the show created barely any buzz, was losing to HOTD and it was pretend-liked to counter the backlash. Now that who owns whom bickering is an ancient history, masks are off so admitting what we knew already, that it wasn't the performer everyone made it out to be, is cool again. 

 

 

[lilmac]

As a hardcore LOTR fan, Rings of Power totally rocked. The world-building was off the charts and the new characters were fantastic (the woke casting was a distraction for me personally but not enough to detract). The massive budget was definitely visible on screen, making it possibly the most 'cinematic experience' I've ever seen on television. Plus, the side quests and stories were awesome and I'm sure they'll all come together in the end. It's obvious the people behind the show really love and understand the Tolkien universe. I'm glad they're in charge of the creative direction and I really hope they can see it through to the end of the planned 5 seasons. Especially since Bezos spent a fortune on this thing.

Edited April 7, 2023 by lilmac