Rihanna and Billie Eilish land documentary deals worth $25 million each with Amazon and Apple TV+
Rihanna has recently struck a deal with Amazon's video streaming service for exclusive worldwide rights to a Peter Berg documentary about the pop diva's life. The film deal is worth a whopping 25 million dollars - and it doesn't even have a title yet. Berg previously directed Rihanna in the 2012 film, 'Battleship', and was reportedly working on this up-close-and-personal feature on the pop icon for a number of years.
"With unparalleled access into the singer’s life and more than 1,200 hours of footage," The Hollywood Reporter stated, "the doc offers private insights into Rihanna’s personality, sense of humor, work ethic, family and love."
Though the project was originally being shopped the old-fashioned way to multiple production studios and film distributors, it eventually found its way to the overflowing coffers of prominent online streaming platforms, who then proceeded to engage in a bidding war. It is reported that Endeavor Content had been sharing preview footage of the project in May during the Cannes Film Festival to prospective buyers before Amazon stepped in to secure the gargantuan deal.
This revelation comes hot on the heels of last week's news that Billie Eilish also reportedly received the same eye-watering 25 million dollar sum in a similar deal from Apple TV+ for an exclusive documentary about her personal life.
That film, directed by R.J. Cutler, follows the 17-year-old singer around during the release of her debut album, 'When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?' and offers an intimate look at Eilish’s private moments with her family and also contains behind-the-scenes footage of her public appearances.
On the looks of things, it's definitely great value-for-money for all parties involved. Both Rihanna and Eilish are young, talented, fiercely-independent pop divas with millions of devoted fans worldwide and billions of online plays. Queen RiRi's last album, 'Anti', spent a jaw-dropping 200 weeks on the Billboard 200 chart and Eilish, the teenybopper-turned-pop star had more than five billion views on YouTube in 2019 alone.
The announcement of this massive payday could also set a huge precedent for future documentary deals involving music's biggest stars. With the clout and production budgets of Apple TV+, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video and Netflix on the rise, it's becoming clear that these streaming platforms are set to out-do and out-bid each other at every opportunity to garner the exclusive rights to millions of guaranteed clicks and views.
And while the music stars might be grinning all the way to the bank, we, as excited fans and viewers, are sure to be reaping the rewards as well.