I believe the implication is that the priority is for a general international audience ala Disney

So is OP under the impression that the Jackson trilogy is not available in 14+ languages? Or that the Tolkien books aren’t, for that matter?

Well, one could argue that Tolkien didn't plan on his books to be translated in that many languages. I'm not sure why this matters at all, though.

He was a philologist who oversaw translations during his lifetime and even wrote a guide for translators to use when translating fictional names. It sounds like he was picky and critical of translations, but not because he didn’t want them to exist.

I didn't mean to imply that Tolkien opposed translations.

Maybe I'm being a bit naive, but intuitively I would think that most writers do not write a book with the explicit intention of the book being translated. The first intended audience is typically readers in the original language.

This is opposed by producing a series for Amazon, where it is mostly clear that the intended audience is world wide, talking many languages (in particular if it is about such a famous topic). And I wouldn't be surprised if this fact does impact the production of a work.

> intuitively I would think that most writers do not write a book with the explicit intention of the book being translated. The first intended audience is typically readers in the original language.

I don’t think so. I think most writers are only fluent in a very small number of languages and they choose one of those languages to write in.

Remember that English wasn't quite as dominant in Tolkien's day as it is today. In the 50s most people in e.g. France wouldn't speak English.

Or simply an audience targeted by something other than the language they speak. As others have mentioned, it’s very common for new original content from major streaming services to have subtitles in many languages. Even if that weren’t the case, it wouldn’t be surprising for a Lord of the Rings show, given that the book series has been widely translated and the author himself was a philologist who reportedly meticulously oversaw early translations of his works.

A complete disregard for languages, and talking about a Tolkien adaptation! Preposterous!

Tolkien was so into languages he edited the Oxford dictionary.

And besides, this feels like English chauvinism.

Nobody is the target audience when you're aiming for everybody...

But... they're aiming for every language not every person surely. Do you think that only English speakers want to watch good fantasy TV?

I wouldn't be so sure. There's a reason why Big Dumb Action movies get cranked out while comedies have largely died: they do well in the foreign market. This is basic least-common-denominator thinking that leads to bland schlock.

Based solely on my anecdotal data it seems like many comedies where I live are local (aka not from the US).

Some of them do well others don't but they are certainly there.

Is there a similar set of movies in the US (aimed at the national/state level market) or is all the money sucked up by productions for the international market.

I don't know what Amazon pays for subtitles but I could probably get it done for around $50/language. Hardly a relevant metric

I seriously doubt that.

for 50$, I mean they could use "google translate". Seriously though localizations and translations are a serious business and important. Not everyone speaks (or understand movie/tv show) English.