by On September 1, local time, Amazon’s so-called “most expensive” magic giant, “The Lord of the Rings: The Ring of Power” finally aired, but word of mouth seems to have collapsed.
On the one hand, Amazon announced that the number of viewing users has broken the highest record in history, but on the other hand, the magnificent system costing 715 million US dollars has not won the reputation of the audience: the male protagonist’s appearance was “aesthetically downgraded” by the complaining drama party, and the black elf’s The setting allows some audiences to directly call the violation…
At the same time, Amazon also quietly launched the function of “restricting comments within three days”, which triggered another wave of public speculation.
Whether it is the heavy investment in the early stage, the special choice to compete on the same stage with another top magical IP in the world, the prequel of “Game of Thrones”, or the “banning” of the comment area, at least it can be seen that the platform is doing its best.
What does “The Lord of the Rings: The Ring of Power” (hereinafter referred to as “The Ring of Power”) mean to Amazon?
Anti-trolls, “control review” becomes a trick
From the announcement of the casting to the present, “Ring of Power” has been entangled with “bad reviews” on the Internet while promoting ambitiously.
One of the most controversial points is thatIn order to “pursue the diversity of characters”, actors of color have been added to the play. Whether this is an “inclusive innovation” or “disloyalty to the original work” has caused different voices to continue to wrestle.
Some fans believe that based on the fact that the elves in the previous series were all played by white actors, the role settings should not be forcibly adapted. On the contrary, it is easy to be regarded as “politically correct”.
“This is simply disrespect to Tolkien’s work and Scandinavian mythology, and a waste of a great opportunity.”, “Tolkien’s coffin board is going to be overwhelmed. Black actors should not appear in Middle-earth. The world”…a view that is not uncommon in the context of the Lord of the Rings-related discussions on social media.
Netizens express dissatisfaction with the casting of “The Lord of the Rings: Ring of Power” | Twitter
After the official broadcast of the first season, the appearance of the Elf Prince fell into a vortex of controversy: “Aesthetic degradation” has become a hot topic. It is difficult to say that on that day, Orlando Bloom, who played the Elf Prince in the original series, became a new one. The white moonlight in the hearts of many fans.
“Rings of Power” and “Lord of the Rings” movie version of Elf character casting comparison｜Internet
Netizens commented:The new version of “Rings of Power” cost 3 billion and brought me an impressive “visual impact”.
All of the above have been attributed to Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and other media as one of the reasons for the “Ring of Power” “score collapse”.
As of the date of publication, the average freshness given by viewers on Rotten Tomatoes is only 39%, which is 45 percentage points lower than the previous professional score, and lower than the lowest score in the film version of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies series. ” is still 35 percentage points lower.
Rotten Tomatoes Rating for The Ring of Power | Rotten Tomatoes
“The Hollywood Reporter” commented: “Ring of Power” suffered a “bad review campaign” – a large number of users gave low scores due to the creator, the theme or other factors that are not the work itself.
However, we can’t stamp the “Lord of the Rings” rating collapse only due to the emotional catharsis of fans. There are still many viewers’ dissatisfaction directly pointed out: the actors did not perform well, the rhythm of the first few episodes was too slow, the budget was “burned” in the post-production of the big scene, but the quality of the content itself was ignored…
On the producer side, it seems that they are already ready to meet the surging public opinion. Some fans found that the new drama was broadcast for three days, but the comment area was empty.
This is not a page bug,It’s a new feature that Amazon has launched: all reviews are delayed for 72 hours.
“Ring of Power” has no comments for the first 3 days since it aired｜Prime Video
For this “review first” strategy, Amazon officially explained to the media: “It is to filter and combat fake reviews of robots and navy, and reduce their impact on user perception. “
Although this is not prepared for “The Lord of the Rings” alone, it has been promoted to all episodes of the platform this summer, but the essential effect is the same: to repel the brainless navy who scored low.
Amazon succeeded.
After three days of “control review”, the rating of “Ring of Power” on Prime Video remained at 4.3 points (out of 5).
Not only that, in the 15 years since its establishment, Prime Video, which has never exposed the ratings of its works on the platform, proactively announced the ratings of “Ring of Power” for the first time – more than 25 million viewers worldwide within 24 hours.
Sparing no effort to fight against the navy, actively exposing the ratings must be hard with both hands, which reflects Amazon’s ambition and burden on the streaming media market share.
Prime Video’s ‘stud’ ambitions
In the film and television industry, Amazon has been working hard.
In 2010, Amazon Studios was established. On the one hand, the company has gradually cooperated with film distributors to push original films to the big screen; on the other hand, there have been repeated news of the acquisition of physical theaters such as Landmark Theaters, AMC Theaters and large entertainment companies.
In 2017, the self-made film “Manchester by the Sea” won the Oscar for Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay that year, and Amazon Pictures became the first streaming company to be nominated for the Oscar for Best Picture;
In March 2022, Amazon officially announced the acquisition of MGM Movies for $8.5 billion, making it the second largest acquisition in its history (the first being the acquisition of the American chain Whole Foods in 2017). If the acquisition is successful,MGM willBoosted Amazon with over 4,000 movies and nearly 20,000 TV showsincluding “Rocky”, “Robocop”, etc., and also let it include James Bond, The Hobbit and other IPs.
Some netizens jokingly commented: “If Bezos wants to, he can even star in the next episode of 007 himself.”
In addition, Amazon has frequently signed the streaming rights of a number of film giants in the past two years, such as Universal, Sony, etc. Movie fans can see “Fast and Furious 9” and “Jurassic” on the platform. Classic blockbusters such as World of Ages 3.
According to statistics from 2021, Amazon has become the second largest paid streaming service company in the world after Netflix. In terms of price, Netflix’s monthly fee is $14, while Amazon’s is less than $9, which also allows it to accumulate a large number of movie viewers.
Amazon is already the second most subscribed streaming platform | Bloomberg
However, Amazon is far behind Netflix, which regularly hits hits, when it comes to demand share for original content. In other words, when viewers think of high-quality original films, more than half of them open Netflix.
Amazon is chasing after this, and this adaptation of “The Lord of the Rings” is one of the biggest bets.
In 2017, Amazon invested $250 million to buy the adaptation rights of “The Lord of the Rings”, and also spent huge sums of money to go to New Zealand to shoot, combined with high-level CGI scenes to create a grand masterpiece. When watching, you can really feel the impact of money from the high-quality picture effects.
Behind the cost of each set of more than 400 million yuan, there is also a layer of “personal selfishness”. According to rumors, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is a huge fan of “Lord of the Rings”.
The “good heart” of the world’s richest man is also the vanguard of Amazon’s battle in the streaming media battlefield. The two swords merged, so “Ring of Power” must succeed.
Streaming Media – The Battlefield of Giants
From Amazon’s high expectations for “The Lord of the Rings”, we can see its ambition to impact streaming media – after more than ten years of rapid development, the streaming media battle has not only failed to form a “winner takes all” situation, but the situation has changed more frequently.
Netflix, the former king of streaming media, began to fall into the quagmire of weak user growth and plummeting stock prices this year. In order to get out of the predicament, on the one hand, Netflix cracked down on the “account sharing” that it had secretly encouraged before, and on the other hand, even broke the creed of “no advertising” and began to launch a low-cost subscription with an advertising version.
Behind Netflix’s move, it is feeling the positive pressure from giants such as Apple, Amazon and Disney to aggressively attack streaming media.
One of the means by which giants bet on streaming media is “copying ability”.
In June of this year, Apple signed a 10-year long-term agreement with MLS (Major League Soccer), and in the next three months, Apple signed a $85 million deal with MLB (Major League Baseball). Friday Baseball Night”.
Disney also announced its partnership with the IPL (Indian Premier League) last year, with a copyright fee of up to $15 million for a single game.
Because the giants are so rich, the copyright of sports events in the United States has skyrocketed, putting a lot of pressure on traditional sports copyright-related companies. In contrast, the production fees of Netflix’s film and television dramas, which once seemed generous, appear to be a lot “economical”.
Apple is equally ambitious in series and film production | Colider
Netflix’s stock price is a microcosm of the streaming media war, and the right to speak on the field is actually in the hands of the super giants who have the strength to spend a lot of money. In other words, giants like Apple and Amazon are the real big players in the streaming media field in the future.
And the meaning of streaming media has also changed:For Netflix, content is the only weapon for subscriber growth to maintain subscription revenue;giantsthe content will beUsers stay in their own huge ecosystem and build a commercial moatone of the means。
A week before the launch of “Ring of Power”, HBO’s “Game of Thrones” prequel “Dragon Family” was launched, and the two dramas were obviously fighting on the same stage. Judging from word of mouth, it seems that “Dragon Family” has the upper hand.
But from the perspective of the streaming media industry, Amazon’s opponent may not be HBO, which was born out of the cable network, but a stronger opponent, Apple, because this company has deeper financial resources and a complex ecosystem.
Prime Video needs an IP with a wider audience to solidify its position in the streaming wars, and Ring of Power is that IP, so Amazon needs it “must succeed.”
References:
Amazon’s Delay for ‘The Rings of Power’ Reviews on Prime Video Part of New Initiative to Filter Out Trolls
https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/rings-of-power-reviews-delayed-amazon-prime-video-1235358724/
The drama version of “The Lord of the Rings” “Black Elf” once again caused controversy. The actor responded: there is a dream of becoming an elves
https://www.guancha.cn/internation/2022_07_28_651397.shtml
Sports become the main battlefield of streaming media, Amazon may lose money or receive copyrights for consecutive events | Jiemian News
https://m.jiemian.com/article/7415619.html
