Two of the most anticipated new television series are launching on streaming platforms in August and September. Here’s a look at which show is more anticipated among Benzinga’s Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) followers and why the shows are important to their respective companies.
What Happened: A prequel set 200 years before the events of “Game of Thrones” premiered on HBO and HBO Max Sunday night. “House of the Dragon” is a potential hit show for Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD), the parent company of HBO and HBO Max.
“Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” is set to be released in September on Amazon Prime Video, the video streaming platform owned by Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN).
At the start of 2022, the two shows were ranked as the two most anticipated new shows for the year on IMDb, a movie and television database website. “House of the Dragon” ranked first on the list based on search volume on IMDb. “The Rings of Power” ranked second on the list.
At the time of writing, “House of the Dragon” ranks fifth in popularity on IMDb and “The Rings of Power” ranks 17th.
Both shows come from established franchises with huge built-in fan bases, which prompted Benzinga’s recent Twitter poll.
“Which one? The Rings of Power or House of the Dragon,” Benzinga asked on Twitter.
“House of the Dragon” won the poll with 51.7% of the vote. “The Rings of Power” received 25.2% to finish second. A third option of “Neither” received 23.1% of the vote.
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Why It’s Important: Demand for “House of the Dragon” was anticipated to be strong, with a huge fan base and large marketing push by Warner Bros. Discovery. Sunday night’s premiere saw problems for some HBO Max users, with the app crashing at times, according to Deadline.
“House of the Dragon is being successfully viewed by millions of HBO Max subscribers this evening. We’re aware of a small portion of users attempting to connect via Fire TV devices that are having issues and are in the process of resolving for those impacted users,” an HBO representative told Deadline.
“House of the Dragon” could be incredibly important to the success of HBO Max and the streaming ambitions of Warner Bros., as the company recently announced several changes to upcoming releases and a plan to unite HBO Max and Discovery+ under one streaming platform.
HBO had its largest ever marketing campaign centered on the new prequel series according to Deadline with a reported $100 million.
Warner Bros. Discovery ended the recent second quarter with 92.1 million global DTC subscribers, up 1.7 million from the first quarter, based on a new DTC subscriber definition from the company. Domestic DTC subscribers fell in the quarter, a figure that could be closely watched to see the result of the addition of “House of the Dragon.”
HBO has multiple “Game of Thrones” projects in the works, including a Jon Snow series.
Meanwhile, “The Rings of Power” is one of the most expensive television shows ever made and one of the biggest media bets by Amazon. The ecommerce giant spent $250 million to acquire the television rights and spent $465 million to make the first season of the highly anticipated streaming show.
The new show is one of several big bets on media for Amazon along with an acquisition of MGM and acquiring the rights to “Thursday Night Football” NFL games. The show streams on Prime Video, which is one of several perks of having an Amazon Prime membership that costs $14.99 per month or $139 per year.
Along with the release on streaming, Amazon has partnered with Cinemark Holdings (NYSE:CNK) for a one night event that will see the first two episodes of the show streamed in theaters. Other theaters outside the U.S. will also help bring the first two episodes to screens.
The first two episodes will air on Prime Video on Sep. 2, 2022 with additional episodes added one per week each Friday for six additional weeks.
The new "Lord of the Rings" series also comes on the heels of video game company Embracer Group AB (OTC:THQQF) purchasing several rights to the franchise via the acquisition of Middle-earth Enterprises. The acquisition could lead to additional movies centered on the franchise, something that could be boosted by a hit TV show.
Photo: Courtesy of pressroom.warnermedia.com
