One show to rule them all: Lord of the Rings will be back on your screens next year

8/3/21 8:00PM

One show to rule them all

‍Lord of the Rings is returning to the screen. The small screen, that is.

This week Amazon announced that the Lord of the Rings TV show is officially set for a September 2022 release on its streaming service, offering a teaser picture for fans along with the announcement.

The LOTR TV show will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of the most recent and well-known adaptations of Tolkien's work; the six movies produced and directed by Peter Jackson from 2001 to 2014.

The original LOTR trilogy was an all-round cinematic success, scoring highly with both audiences and critics, as well as taking roughly $3bn at the global box office, on a budget of less than $300m. The second trilogy set in Middle-Earth, based on Tolkien's 1937 book The Hobbit, was also a solid success — doing well at the global box office despite slightly more lukewarm reviews, particularly with critics.

‍Spend money, to make money

‍Producers of the LOTR TV show will be hoping to replicate those results on the small screen, and they've certainly been set up for success, with the first season (just the first season) set to cost a truly astonishing $465m. For some context on how enormous that number is in the world of TV budgets; the final season of Game of Thrones cost just $90m, Disney spent "around" $100m on the first season of the Mandalorian and the first season of The Crown cost around $130m (source: The Verge).

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JetBlue is raising its bag fees as fuel costs squeeze airlines

JetBlue will reportedly hike its bag fees, as the cost of jet fuel continues to climb amid the war in Iran. It’s the latest example of carriers finding ways to push rising costs onto travelers.

Last week, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said that if fuel prices remain elevated, fares would need to rise another 20% for his airline to break even this year.

As CNBC reported, when one airline raises fees, others tend to follow.

Earlier this month, JetBlue hiked its first-quarter outlook for operating revenue per seat mile to between 5% and 7%, saying that strong Q1 demand helped “partially offset additional expenses realized from operational disruptions and rising fuel costs.” Now, the carrier appears to be making moves to further boost revenue to offset those costs.

Earlier on Monday, JetBlue rival Alaska Air lowered its Q1 profit forecast. The refining margins for the carrier’s cheapest fuel option — sourced from Singapore and representing about 20% of Alaska’s overall supply — have spiked 400% since February.

JetBlue did not immediately respond to a request for comment.