Prime Video Still Using ‘Citadel’ as Model for International Streaming Franchises, Despite Ratings Dip
Prime Video thought it had another bona fide hit on its hands with “Citadel,” the spy-thriller series starring Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra Jonas. The show drove big viewership numbers early on, garnering a bigger audience for its premiere episode than any Prime Video series in history besides “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.”
But in the weeks following the show’s premiere, it has not cracked Nielsen’s top 10 streaming charts. Despite a falling off in the ratings, Amazon is still planning to develop the series into an international streaming franchise. Speaking at the 2023 Banff Media Festival, Amazon Studio’s Head of Drama Series Odetta Watkins said the show’s performance was a “victory,” and that it needed more time to spread its wings.
“I think [‘Citadel’] was conceived to be able to speak to the world and it has,” Watkins said. “Every show is not going to hit in every place on the same level. But as the franchise grows, I feel like the numbers will grow all over, including domestically. You’ll start to see the audience respond differently as it goes on.”
Amazon is looking to turn more properties into multititle franchises, according to Watkins. The company will pursue this strategy with shows in multiple genres, including mystery, young adult, and more. Amazon wants to make these properties into a global experience, with multiple spinoffs set in different countries.
It’s a fascinating strategy from a company that has essentially unlimited funds to create new TV shows and movies, but does not have staggeringly large intellectual properties — like Marvel and Star Wars — to work with. Amazon does hold the rights to develop TV series based on “Lord of the Rings,” but it is somewhat limited in what it can do with those since Warner Bros. Discovery still holds the movie rights to that IP.
Instead of trying to license a big-time franchise from another streamer, Amazon is attempting to build its own from scratch. That usually takes decades to achieve, but Amazon’s financial power to produce multiple prestige titles at once allows it to put the whole process in the microwave. It still must bring audiences on board to achieve ultimate success, but Prime Video is pursuing a unique approach to the franchise-heavy strategy that most streamers are following these days.
Similarly, Disney is focusing on franchises to improve the bottom line for its streaming segment, and Warner Bros. Discovery is doing likewise. Paramount is leaning into its Showtime library to kickstart its franchise efforts, and is also greenlighting new shows set in Taylor Sheridan’s Sheridan-verse seemingly every month.
Amazon’s bag of IP is not completely empty, and it is spinning up new content based on titles like “The Pink Panther,” “Stargate” and “Legally Blonde” that may be a part of its multi-country attack plan going forward. But “Citadel” is still the model new Prime Video franchises will follow, despite the fact that audiences seem to have cooled on the series after its red-hot start.
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