HBO’s The Last of Us show costs more than Game of Thrones
By Ashley Hurst
Every network wants to make the next big TV series. After all, it can be incredibly lucrative, but it’s a risk, because making it can also be ridiculously expensive. As the streaming wars get more competitive, every studio seems to have a big-budget project in the works; Amazon Prime Video has The Lord of the Rings, Netflix has The Sandman, Disney+ has all those MCU and Star Wars shows, and so on.
HBO has its share of heavy hitters, too, including the Game of Thrones spinoff House of the Dragon. But they’re also sparing no expense on The Last of Us, its adaptation of Naughty Dog’s 2013 video game. The Last of Us is a post-apocalyptic story about a smuggler named Joel (Pedro Pascal) and his quest to escort the young Ellie (Bella Ramsey) across America so a group called the Fireflies can discover why she’s immune to the disease that has turned so much of the rest of the population into zombies. The desolate landscape is filled with terrors, both undead and alive, so the road won’t be easy.
The Last of Us has already commenced its extremely daunting 12-month filming schedule, which will be the biggest production in Canadian history. It boasts an all-star cast too. As well as former Game of Thrones stars Pedro Pascal (Joel) and Bella Ramsey (Ellie), other confirmed cast members include Gabriel Luna (Tommy), Merle Dandridge (Marlene) and Nico Parker (Sarah).
The Last of Us is an expensive show right out of the gate
Damian Petti is a representative of IATSE 212, IATSE being an association of filmmakers in the region where The Last of Us is shooting. Speaking to CTV News, Petti talked about all the money HBO is pumping into the show.
"This project well exceeds the eight figure per episode mark, so there is a multiplier effect on our economy in terms of its impact. There are hundreds of related businesses benefitting from the plethora of work."
Eight figures means every episode costs at least $10 million. And since the first season has 10 episodes, and Petti revealing that each number “well exceeds” that, it’s probably a lot more.
As Forbes points out, with the show playing around with a budget as substantial as this, it could easily surpass the cost of Game of Thrones, which famously had gigantic costs per episode. Game of Thrones season 6 had 10 episodes that around $10 million per episode. The final season of the fantasy show had only six episodes with a cost of around $15 million per episode. That show grew in the making, and it looks like other series have picked up where it left off. Just look at the hundreds of millions of dollars Amazon is spending on its Lord of the Rings show.
It’s particularly impressive to see HBO throw this much money into a debut season before the show has properly established itself. For reference, the first season of Game of Thrones cost an estimated $50–60 million to make altogether.
HBO clearly has a lot of faith in this project. Since there’s a sequel to the first game, there’s a chance for many more seasons. Hopefully it doesn’t flop. Video games historically don’t make the best on-screen adaptations, after all.
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h/t Forbes