“Game of Thrones” v “Lord of the Rings”: a tale of old v new Hollywood

dollars’ worth of swordplay, sorcery and sex is on its way to a small screen near you. On August 21st Warner Bros Discovery launched “”, a spin-off from its racy smash-hit, “Game of Thrones”, made at a reported cost of over $150m. Hot on its heels, on September 1st Amazon Prime Video will release “The Rings of Power”, a more chaste but pricier drama based on the “Lord of the Rings” books. With a rumoured pricetag of $465m, Amazon’s offering will be the most expensive piece of television ever made.This will make for an epic ratings battle. But it is also part of a longer-running war that pits old Hollywood studios against new streaming upstarts. Warner Bros will celebrate its 100th birthday next year. Amazon, which makes its money from e-commerce and cloud computing, launched its video sideline only five years ago. As the intensify, each side believes it has the advantage.