2000 crores were spent on Priyanka Chopra’s ‘Citadel’, the series flopped, Amazon CEO Andy Jesse asked for answers!
$ 250 million i.e. more than Rs 2000 crore was spent on Priyanka Chopra’s web series ‘Citadel’.
Amazon reportedly spent $250 million on Priyanka Chopra’s espionage series ‘Citadel’, which is struggling to make it to Nielsen’s top 10 list of most streamed shows in the US this year.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has demanded answers as to why some shows cost so much, and Priyanka Chopra and Richard Madden-starrer ‘Citadel’ is at the top of the list. The detective series was notoriously difficult to produce, and opened earlier this year to poor reviews and a mix response from audiences. But it reportedly cost the company $250 million (over Rs 2000 crore) to make.
A new Bloomberg report citing ‘people familiar with the matter’ says JC has sought a big-budget analysis for Amazon’s big shows, six of which have performed poorly over the past nine months. This has happened when Amazon is preparing to lay off thousands of employees. Over the past few months, Amazon has spent $100 million each on shows like Daisy Jones and the Six, The Power, Dead Ringers and The Peripherals, none of which make the list of the 10 most-watched shows in the US according to Nielsen. did not attend.
Even the mega-budget Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, which reportedly cost Amazon $400 million, struggled to hold onto its audience during its first season. But the show that is attracting a significant amount of scrutiny is Citadel. Bloomberg noted that Citadel made Nielsen’s Top 10 chart on only one occasion, when it fell behind Netflix’s Barbecue Showdown.
As part of Amazon’s new big-spending strategy overseen by Amazon Studios head Jan Salke, the company roped in major talent such as Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Jordan Peele and Donald Glover for first-look deals, which resulted in Have not been good.
The report notes that even Salke’s staunchest supporters admit that Citadel began as a commercial proposition more than a creative project. The first season of Citadel was to cost $20 million per episode and run for eight episodes. Ultimately, only six were broadcast. To avoid some of the production difficulties of the first season, Joe Russo has been hired to direct each episode of the show’s second season, but he will reportedly be paid $25 million per program.
In June, Odetta Watkins, head of drama series for Amazon Studios, admitted that Citadel needed ‘time to grow’, as US audiences ‘have grown bored’. At an event, he insisted that from his point of view, the show marks a ‘victory’, as it always was for a global audience. Amazon designed Citadel as a global franchise. An Italian spinoff has already completed production, while the Indian spinoff starring Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Varun Dhawan is currently under shooting.
