Amazon opened its wallet for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power like no one else ever has. The rights alone cost $250 million, followed by around $465 million for the first season. This makes The Rings of Power the most expensive series to date, totaling $715 million.

The first season consists of eight episodes, which comes down to roughly $58 million per episode. In comparison, an episode of The Crown costs around $13 million, while Game of Thrones and The Mandalorian are around $15 million, and Marvel series like WandaVision and Hawkeye would cost about $25 million per episode. However, a part of the investment in The Rings of Power is a one-time expense: sets, costumes, and props can be reused over multiple seasons. Since Amazon is aiming for at least five seasons, the extremely high startup costs are spread over a longer duration.

World-building And Digital Effects

Producers primarily point to the scale of the world-building. Complete cities, fortresses, and landscapes need to be designed, built, and then digitally expanded. The foreground consists of large sets on location or in studios, while mountains, cities, and massive battles are supplemented with computer animation. In previous Dutch war films, a relatively modest amount of visual effects already cost up to one and a half million euros, with high daily personnel costs for each specialist. For an international fantasy series like this, the numbers of people and shooting days skyrocket exponentially.

The costs also accumulate in the physical effects department. The orcs in The Rings of Power do not wear simple masks, but elaborate prosthetics made up of multiple parts. First, faces and components are sculpted, followed by molds, silicone, hair, and paint. In Hollywood, there is a specialized team for every step. In the Netherlands, a small group often handles everything, whereas here, experts from around the world join in, each with their own hourly rates and delivery times.

An Expensive Business Card For Prime Video

Financially, The Rings of Power is primarily a strategic tool. With an extremely expensive prestige project, Prime Video aims to stand out globally and attract new subscribers. The logic is that millions of viewers will sign up for such big titles and then keep paying monthly. At the same time, there is skepticism: every viewer must first take out a subscription instead of purchasing a standalone movie ticket, and the competition from other services is fierce. This is precisely why streamers opt for a few very expensive series as a business card. The Rings of Power is the most pronounced example of this. The series scores rather poorly on IMDb with a mere 6.9.

Director Mark Steven Johnson, known for Daredevil and Love, Guaranteed, now achieves success with a Christmas romantic comedy on Netflix: Champagne Problems. But is the film worth watching?

In the film, an ambitious manager travels to France to take over a world-famous champagne brand right before Christmas, but a romance with a charming Parisian derails the plans. As of now, there is no Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes, but of the eight reviews logged, six are 'fresh'.

Chemistry And Paris

Rachel Wagner of Hallmarkies Podcast appreciates the light-hearted romance and the setting: "I find both leads strong; they share great chemistry and Paris is romantic. I enjoyed it." Her review is positive, particularly highlighting the leads and the location.

John Anderson of the Wall Street Journal praises the humorous approach: "Jokes have more traction in a film that is executed with such self-awareness; the humor works because it is unexpected and incongruent with the overall mood."

Jokes And Glow

William Bibbiani (TheWrap) sees a stronger comedic than romantic heart: "The romantic part of Johnson's rom-com simmers on low heat, but the comedy part burns just a bit brighter."

The Guardian reviewer Adrian Horton is more critical, giving it a 'rotten' score: "No matter how lyrically one speaks about the luxury of champagne, no one pretends this is anything more than mass-produced; the things to hate are also the things to appreciate - a real 'champagne problem.'"

Seasonal Combo

Isabella Soares (Collider) finds it relatable yet fitting: "No matter how Hallmark-like this Netflix rom-com is, it offers exactly the combination you expect from a Christmas movie." This underscores the audience-friendly approach and the functional mix of romance and humor.

Disney has long been known for its strict control over what can and cannot appear in its family films, but director David Lowery recently revealed something notable. According to him, there are three rules every filmmaker must adhere to under 'The House of Mouse'.

Although the studio now places warnings on older films due to racist or sexist stereotypes, these do not represent the boundaries that Disney themselves impose. Lowery, who directed [i]Pete's Dragon[/i] for the iconic studio, encountered a remarkable contract when he joined.

Three Strict Rules

The director states: "When you sign with Disney, your contract lists three things that cannot appear in your film: no decapitations, no heads on stakes, and no smoking. This is absolutely not allowed".

It is understandable that violent scenes like decapitations or someone being impaled are prohibited. However, the third prohibition regarding smoking is quite striking, especially since it appears in many classics. Lowery also struggles with this restriction.

Remarkable

The filmmaker continues: "I can still vividly remember the scene where Pinocchio smokes and turns bright red. This was, and still is, in my eyes, a scene that seems innocent, but that is no longer allowed".



The iconic smoking caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland is also something that today would be absolutely unthinkable. There is no explicit prohibition in the contracts regarding stereotypes or outdated cultural representations.