Game of Thrones was the most expensive show on the planet…for a minute. When the series debuted on HBO in 2011, it cost around $6 million per episode to produce, according to Variety. That was considered costly for the time; for comparison’s sake, a big show like Lost — which ended a year before Game of Thrones began — cost $4 million per episode. None of these series were made with couch change. This is serious money.
It’s also laughable compared to what gets spent on TV these days. We’re currently living in an age where studios and streamers are willing to expend sums of money on TV shows once thought unthinkable for all but the biggest tentpole movies.
What shows are the most expensive, and how did we get here? That’s what we’re going to examine here today. Let’s count up from some of the lightest hitters to the heaviest, starting with a trio of shows that cost as much out of the gate as Game of Thrones did when it ended.
The $15 million club: The Mandalorian, The Sandman and Avatar: The Last Airbender
By the end of its run, Game of Thrones was costing $15 million per episode. This was when Daenerys Targaryen’s dragons were full grown, the show was shooting all over the world, and the principle cast members had all negotiated handsome pay raises. At the time, there were no shows that cost more.
Nowadays, shows are starting out at this level. According to The Wall Street Journal, The Mandalorian cost $15 million per episode at the outset, and it’s almost certainly gotten more expensive since then. As the first-ever live-action Star Wars show, expectations for The Mandalorian were high. It also pioneered new technology, and obviously depicting the galaxy far, far away is going to take a lot of expensive special effects work. So the price tag isn’t a huge shock — heaven knows Disney has the money — but starting where Game of Thrones ended is still a power move.
And there are other shows coming down the pipeline that are starting at the $15 million mark that don’t have the pedigree of Star Wars. Per Screenrant, Netflix is spending $15 million per episode on its upcoming live-action remake of Avatar: The Last Airbender. They’ll also be spending that on their adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s comic book The Sandman.
The Sandman is an especially big swing, because it’s a complicated text that may put some people off with its stylized approach to storytelling. And yet Netflix is spending Game of Thrones money on it anyway, before they know whether it’ll be a hit. It’s as if Game of Thrones has raised the bar; if you’re not spending at least as much as they were, you’re not in the game.