Is anybody else pumped for some appointment streaming this weekend? The first episode of HBO’s “House of Dragon,” the hotly anticipated prequel series to “Game of Thrones,” premieres Sunday night. Then, 12 days later, Amazon will debut its own fantasy series, “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” on Sept. 2.
It’s fair to say HBO and its debt-laden parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, need to avoid a bomb far more than Amazon does. But while a flop of one show, even an expensive one, won’t ruin Amazon, a smash hit could help elevate its Prime Video streaming service into a main attraction for the broader Prime membership service, rather than a nice side benefit consumers get along with fast shipping. I, for one, will be grabbing some popcorn.
