Did Richthofen, Nardoni and criminals make money with the series? Understand!

The series Tremembéreleased on the 31st on Amazon Prime Video, has already made history. The production, which became a rage on social media, achieved the platform’s best national debut since its arrival in Brazil in 2016. The information comes from columnist Gabriel Vaquer, from Folha de S.Paulo

With expressive numbers, although not disclosed for strategic reasons, the series surpassed the performance of the hitherto champion Cangaço Novobecoming the most watched original title in the history of streaming in the country.

The impact was so significant that the milestone was communicated internally to actors, producers and content professionals from Amazon’s Brazilian division. And it didn’t stop there: behind the scenes, there is talk of growth of over 50% in the subscriber base since the series debut, marking the biggest jump in 2025 so far.

Set in the famous Tremembé penitentiary, in the interior of São Paulo — known for housing highly notorious criminals —, the series dramatizes, with artistic freedom, the behind-the-scenes routine of figures such as Suzane von Richthofen, Elize Matsunaga, Daniel and Cristian Cravinhos, Alexandre Nardoni and Anna Carolina Jatobá.

Did criminals make money from the series?

The possible remuneration of the criminals portrayed in the series also generated debate. In an interview with ExamFernando Canutto, specialist in intellectual property and partner at Godke Advogados, explained that there is no legal provision for the payment of rights in this type of work, as long as the cases are considered to be in the public domain.

“As the series has journalistic purposes, resembling a documentary, it is unusual for productions like this to make payments to the individuals involved. They are convicted criminals, and, as mentioned, the story is widely known, and, as a rule, only those who sign a contract receive remuneration”, he explained.

From a legal point of view, the approach is legitimate: Brazilian legislation does not prohibit the creation of documentary series about notorious crimes, as long as the information portrayed is publicly available and the content respects the limits of freedom of expression.