Amazon Prime Video original Citadel, starring Priyanka Chopra and Richard Madden, was released in April 2023. It has come under fire for its financial losses. The series, which was purportedly built on a budget of $250 million (about Rs 2000 crore), failed to make an impression with the audience. According to media company Neilsen, the series did not rank among the top ten most-watched streaming programmes in the United States. Now, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has requested a budget study following ‘liberal spending’ on Citadel and many other shows that have failed to make a profit over the last nine months. According to Bloomberg, “people familiar with the matter” told the publication that six major shows underperformed in the previous nine months. According to the report, “Amazon spent $7 billion on original shows, licenced programmes, and sports, up from $5 billion the year before.”
Despite all this, Citadel has already been renewed for a second season. The show has local adaptations with scenarios set in Italy and India. While Amazon claimed the series’ international success, no data was provided.
Jennifer Salke, the head of Amazon Studios, approached Russo Brothers about the development of Citadel. The creative partners of their production company AGBO, screenwriter Josh Appelbaum and TV writer Bryan Oh, were working on an espionage thriller about “duelling spy rings” – one good and one evil. The budget for each episode was set at $20 million, but due to the pandemic and the Russo Brothers’ creative adjustments, the costs escalated.
The report in Bloomberg mentioned, “They (Russo Brothers) wanted to eliminate the love story between characters played by Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra Jonas, and didn’t like other plot elements. In post-production, when completed scenes are edited into a real programme, the Russos began to experiment with a different version of the show. While the primary post-production office was in London, the Russos established a second editing group in Los Angeles and cut a different version of the series. They sent it to Amazon without first displaying it to the entire crew. The London crew then rushed to send their edit of the show to Amazon.”
When the company sided with the Russo Brothers’ idea, they also brought in writer David Weil to rewrite the script. More than half of the series had to be reshot as a result of this. The budget was then increased by $80 million.
According to recent rumours, Joe Russo will helm the second season of Citadel and will be paid $25 million per episode.
The report comes at the same time as the major layoffs. Other significant shows that failed to make Nielson’s list include Daisy Jones & the Six, The Power, Dead Ringers, and The Peripheral, all of which cost more than $100 million to produce. According to The Hollywood Reporter, even Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power ($400 million-plus) was a tremendous show that did not receive the response it deserved.
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