Amazon’s “Lord of the Rings” prequel and HBO’s “Game of Thrones” spinoff battle it out for fantasy supremacy — but both can claim bragging rights
Fair or not, all Hollywood can’t help comparing is Amazon’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” and HBO’s “House of the Dragon.” The two blockbuster fantasy series belonged to arguably the most popular franchises of the past 25 years, with immeasurable budgets — nearly $200 million for “House of the Dragon” and $465 million for “Rings of Power” — and two weeks after each other. Premiered inside. , The truth is that both new series can claim bragging rights early in their runs.
audience retention
Amazon Prime Video made the strategic decision last Friday to release the first two episodes of “Rings of Power.” The move helped keep “Rings of Power” top “Dragon” in terms of viewership as 87% of viewers who watched the first episode of “Rings” also watched the second episode (this was the case with Disney+’s Marvel series “She-Dragon”). Hulk is the equivalent of “Attorney at Law”), according to Whip Media data provided to TheWrap. Whip Media pulls data from TV Time, a TV and movie app that tracks audience interest across 22 million global registered users. Is.
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For “House of the Dragon”, which debuted with an episode on Sunday, August 21, 74% of people who watched the premiere also watched the second episode (although the combined linear HBO and HBO Max digital viewership grew by 2% over that period). Risen, per HBO and Nielsen).
viewership
The numbers can be twisted and twisted to support any narrative, which makes it difficult to compare apples-to-apples ratings.
Amazon announced that the “Rings of Power” premiere drew 25 million viewers globally on its first day. But this is the first time Prime Video has released rating figures like this and it’s unclear how a streamer defines a scene (watching the first five minutes of an episode? 30 minutes? The entire episode?). Meanwhile, “House of the Dragon” premiered Sunday night on HBO and HBO Max to nearly 10 million viewers, taking premiere viewership in its first week of availability to more than 20 million home viewers.
How can a global streaming-exclusive title with a vague viewership definition compare to US-only linear and digital releases?
In terms of whip media figures — which date back to 2018 — “Dragon” and “Rings” both enjoyed top five series debuts. “House of the Dragon” actually marked the largest series debut of all shows in that period based on the amount of TV Time users, recording one premiere scene in three days following its August 21 release on HBO and HBO Max. did. (The Premium Cabler also noted that the premiere garnered the largest audience for any new original series in HBO history).
“Rings of Power” debuted in the top five series in TV Time’s history, based on its three-day run following its premiere on Prime Video. Comparing the two shows and how they performed in that three-day post-debut window, TV Time found that “House of the Dragon” attracted 51% more viewers than “Rings of Power”.
Samba TV – which collects audience data through its proprietary automatic content recognition technology on smart TVs that are opt-in to 28 million US devices, but does not account for non-TV devices such as mobile phones and laptops – revealed That 1.8 million American households watched “Rings of Power” premiered live plus a three-day window, while 1.3 million American households watched the second episode in the same period. This is the best premiere weekend for any Prime Video original series in 2022. But the premiere episode of “House of the Dragon” secured 4.8 million American homes in a single window, per samba TV.
conclusion
Front-loading two episodes to begin with could help secure “Rings of Power” viewership week-over-week and potentially even grow its audience as of Season 1. This will allow the show to air its highly anticipated season finale a week before the “House of the Dragon” finale, which provides a nice cushion for dominating the cultural conversation. Yet when it comes to audience clarity, it looks like “House of the Dragon” is off to a strong start overall. Nevertheless, it is clear that there is enough room in the Hollywood landscape for both the blockbuster series to be successful.
