House of the Dragon will cost under $20 million per episode

There’s been a lot of news this week about the rising price of TV. Marvel shows like WandaVision and Hawkeye reportedly cost around $20-$25 million to make, presumably with a lot of that money going to pay the big-name stars. Netflix is allegedly spending an eye-popping $30 million per episode on the upcoming fourth season of Stranger Things. And let’s not forget that the first season of Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is costing around $465 million to produce. At eight episodes, that comes out to…over $60 million per episode?!

Granted, The Rings of Power sum also includes money for getting the show in general off the ground, but still, it’s clear that production costs for TV shows are kind of out of control.

We can blame Game of Thrones for this. Game of Thrones was a high budget fantasy show with a lot of special effects, location shooting and fancy costumes. When it debuted in 2011, it cost a comparatively meager $6 million per episode, but by the final two seasons it was costing closer to $15 million per installment. And because it was so successful, everyone seems hell-bent on going even bigger, which requires huge budgets.

House of the Dragon will cost less than competitors…but it’ll still cost a lot

That said, HBO is still keeping things relatively reasonable. Their next tentpole series, the Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon, costs under $20 million an episode, according to Variety. And that’s not because the show is skimping, but rather because the network now has so much experience with these kinds of world-building dramas — not just with Game of Thrones but also with Westworld and His Dark Materials — that they can produce them with a high degree of efficiency.

But still, under $20 million per episode still means HBO is spending a lot of money. I’m sure the dragons will feature into that; there are a lot more of them flying around Westeros at the time the show is set. I wonder if this bubble might not burst sometime in the near future. Not every expensive show is going to be as popular as Game of Thrones. How long can networks and streaming services commit these kinds of resources without getting returns to match?

For now, House of the Dragon will premiere on HBO and HBO Max on August 21. Set around 200 years before the original show, it tells the story of a brutal civil war that tore Westeros apart. Family will fight family, friend will fight friend, and dragon will fight dragon. It should be spectacular, and at that price, it better be.

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