Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman is an iconic comic series, but also one that’s very hard to produce. It’s about a group of immortal beings who manage their own psychedelic kingdoms; the imagery is wildly imaginative and will take a lot of money to render effectively.
Happily, Netflix is known to spend a lot of money on its shows; we just heard yesterday that they’ll shelling out a stupefying $30 million per episode on the fourth season of Stranger Things. And now, Deadline reports that Netflix is paying as much as $15 million per episode for the first season of The Sandman. At 11 episodes, that means the show will cost the streaming giant a cool $165 million to produce. This astronomical figure doesn’t even include marketing expenses, meaning the final tally is likely to be much higher.
The amount of money Netflix is investing is undoubtedly a sign of confidence for what could be a tricky show to make and sell. There have been several attempts to bring The Sandman to screens since the 1990s, with none ever going forward.
Neil Gaiman puts fans’ fears about The Sandman to rest
Despite the enormous sums spent, rumors persist that Netflix has canceled The Sandman, with people worried that we still don’t have a release date or a full trailer. Gaiman, who serves as an executive producer on the series, has poured water on those rumors, calling them “hilarious.” He’s been having a pretty good time online keeping people grounded:
I’ve been waiting since 1987. If I can be patient… https://t.co/ePN1TLOjWc
— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) April 21, 2022
The news of Netflix’s massive expenditure comes as shares of the company fell by 35% after the announcement that subscriber numbers have fallen; Netflix lost more than 200,000 subscribers in the first three months of 2022 and projects that 2 million more subscribers will be lost over the next quarter.
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