Amazon’s Prime Video announced The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power gave the streaming service its largest ever premiere, attracting more than 25 million global viewers on the first day of the series release.
Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios, said: “It is somehow fitting that Tolkien’s stories – among the most popular of all time, and what many consider to be the true origin of the fantasy genre – have led us to this proud moment.
“I am so grateful to the Tolkien Estate – and to our showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, executive producer Lindsey Weber, cast and crew – for their tireless collaborative efforts and boundless creative energy. And it is the tens of millions of fans watching – clearly as passionate about Middle-earth as we are – who are our true measure of success.”
Prime Video recently relaunched the user interface in July, with the rollout of the design completed in August. The updated interface provides customers with a faster way to navigate content while offering immersive visuals. The rollout – completed at the end of August – was delivered worldwide just in time for the premiere of Rings of Power, with the platform offering the immersive imager and colour palettes complementary to the series.
This epic drama is set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and will take viewers back to an era in which great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to glory and fell to ruin, unlikely heroes were tested, hope hung by the finest of threads, and one of the greatest villains that ever flowed from Tolkien’s pen threatened to cover all the world in darkness.
In 1999, when Amazon was just an online bookstore, The Lord of the Rings was named Amazon customers’ favourite book of the millennium. The Lord of the Rings books have been translated into over 38 languages and have sold more than 150 million copies. Episodes of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power will launch weekly through the October 14 season finale on Prime Video.