In the summer of last year we found out that Embracer Group had snapped up the rights to ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and ‘The Hobbit’ in a multi-million dollar deal that some estimated could have cost a whopping $2 billion. The deal has finally been much cheaper, since the Swedish holding “only” had to pay 395 million.
What does all this mean?
That is the amount that Saul Zaentz Company received for the rights to the two most important works of J.R.R. Tolkien. a figure that many consider quite a bargain. Let’s remember that Amazon is supposed to have paid 250 million for the rights to make ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’, although in that case the owner was The JRR Tolkien Estate and not Saul Zaentz Company.
Those 395 million give Embracer Group the worldwide rights to make movies, video games, board games, merchandising, theme parks and theatrical productions based on those Tolkien books. And it didn’t take long for it to start generating profits, since Amazon Games closed an agreement with this company to make an online multiplayer game based on ‘The Lord of the Rings’.
Now it will be necessary to see what are the following movements of the Embracer Group to make this million-dollar purchase profitable. In any case, they are supposed to be rights in perpetuity, since Saul Zaentz He bought them in 1976 and kept them until his death in 2014, then becoming the possession of the company with his name.
I remind you that Warner also recently announced the launch of new ‘Lord of the Rings’ films, for which they also had to reach an agreement with Embracer Group. Of course, the company is going through a moment of delicate financial health that has led to the application of a cost containment policy.
In Espinof | Much better than ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ and ‘Citadel’: 4 great Amazon Prime Video series to stream if the most expensive in history have disappointed you