“Game of Thrones”, “The Mandalorian” and others – review addiction

For more than twenty years, TV shows have experienced a real renaissance: their popularity is growing, their scale is growing, which means that budgets are also growing. Today we will recall the ten most expensive projects in the modern history of television. There will be proven hits and ambitious failures here, and a couple of positions will surely surprise you.

10th place – “Rome”, $ 9 million per episode

In 2000 a huge success “Gladiator” Ridley Scott actually revived the peplum genre – sweeping historical canvases about the era of swords and sandals. And while in Hollywood they were shooting “Alexandra” and “Troy”, channel HBO also decided to keep up. Together with BBC he launched one of his most ambitious projects into production – “Rome”… The approach was as serious as possible: the producers wanted to show the Eternal City of the times of Julius Caesar in all its bloody splendor, without any discounts on the TV format. To this end, at a studio in Italy, huge, detailed decorations of antique streets were rebuilt and hundreds of authentic costumes were sewn. And this is only for peaceful episodes, but in the series there were also large-scale battles with the participation of cavalry, extras and, of course, with the use of computer graphics. All of the above flew into hundreds of millions of dollars for the first season of twelve episodes alone. And although Rome received top marks and three Emmy awards from critics, it is not surprising that after the second season the channel decided to close the show. Part of the blame fell on a terrible fire that destroyed half of the set just after filming ended, but it was, rather, a good excuse. After all, for television in the middle of zero, the costs were too high.

9th place – “Friends”, $ 10 million per episode

It would seem that what could be simpler and cheaper than a sitcom? The same unpretentious scenery, the same actors (with the exception of rare guest stars), no visual delights and complex tricks. How did it happen that by the beginning of the 2000s “Friends”that did not violate any of these principles became one of the most expensive series on TV? The reason is simple: success. Since its launch in 1994, the show has gained phenomenal popularity – as has the cast of leading actors. Jennifer Aniston, Matthew Perry, Courtney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow and David Schwimmer became world-class stars by the end of the nineties. And the fees demanded the appropriate – so that by the final seasons the creators had to spend about $ 10 million on a 22-minute episode. Since then, of the traditional sitcoms, only “The Big Bang Theory” approached similar figures.

8th place – Ambulance, $ 13 million per episode

Many producers had to shell out for the suddenly untwisted actors. Especially got the creators of the once cult “Ambulance”… George Clooney began acting in 1994 as a little-known TV actor, and ended five years later as one of Hollywood’s most eligible bachelors. His colleague Noah Wiley also managed to establish himself in other projects. And the ambulance itself was not cheap. In the end, the author launched it “Jurassic Park” Michael Crichton, and Steven Spielberg himself helped. All 90s shows held the title of the highest rated series on American television. Unsurprisingly, by the fourth season, the creators weren’t greedy to shell out $ 13 million per episode. True, the attraction of unprecedented generosity lasted only two seasons. Then Clooney finally set off to conquer the big screen, and the rest of the original lineup slowly dispersed, which made it possible to significantly reduce costs.

7th place – “Annealing”, $ 11-16 million per episode

Netflix always proud of his status as an author’s freelancer. Say, this is on a dying TV showrunners have to steam because of such nonsense as ratings, airtime and budgetary constraints. They have the same, on the main stream service of the planet, filmmakers can shoot anything, as they like and as much as they like. For example, Baz Luhrmann, director “Moulin rouge” and “The Great Gatsby”, has the right, without unnecessary worries, to waste a lot of money on a luxurious musical about the formation of hip-hop. To do this, the team recreated New York in the seventies in detail, which turned out to be a very difficult task. In the end, none of the spectators lived, say, in the Roman Empire, so it’s easy to lie about it, but many still remember the seventies. Costumes, entourage, colorful musical numbers – from all this, the planned budget of 11 million per episode often swelled up to 16 million. “Annealing” was Netflix’s most costly flop. Nobody discloses the exact numbers of views, but the fact that the alleged hip-hop saga was closed after eleven episodes says a lot.

6th place – “Crown”, $ 13-15 million per episode

But sometimes the game is still worth the candle. As, for example, in the case of “Crown” all the same Netflix. Who would have thought that the life story of Elizabeth II would be a breakthrough level hit for the stream giant “Stranger Things”? Each new season consistently leads the top in views and reaps a bountiful harvest of awards, but it all costs a pretty penny. As we have already found out, the historical dramas of the near sight are even more expensive in production than the TV series about the conventional Middle Ages. And even more so when it comes to the most famous royal family on the planet. There is makeup, hairstyles, and outfits that the whole world admired. For example, just one exact copy of Elizabeth’s wedding dress cost almost 40 thousand dollars. And in addition to this, the interior of Buckingham Palace had to be rebuilt. As a result, the budget for the first season alone was $ 156 million. By comparison: Oscar-winning drama “The King Speaks!” with Colin Firth cost ten times less.

5th place – “Game of Thrones”, $ 15 million per episode

From real kings and queens, let’s move on to fictional ones. You probably expected to see Game of Thrones much higher in the top, but no – in the early seasons, the main fantasy of the past decade was slightly more expensive than “Rome”. In the first, there are no major battles or dragons at all, and of the big actors only Sean Bean, who then dropped out of the cast for plot reasons. But the further the confrontation between the Starks and Lannisters went, the more impressive the numbers became. In the final season, the average budget reached $ 15 million per episode. Obviously, the number is rather arbitrary, because the burning of King’s Landing is obviously more expensive than a series of long conversations by the fireplace in Winterfell. And whoever says anything about the eighth season of “Game of Thrones”, in terms of scope and entertainment, it has definitely set a new bar among the series. Which, of course, many immediately wanted to move.

4th place – “See”, $ 15 million per episode

Mega-corporation Apple There are definitely no financial problems, so she decided to flood her new stream service with guaranteed hits. And, perhaps, of all Apple TV + launch projects, the series was the most ambitious. “See” – post-apocalyptic fiction of truly gigantic proportions. If HBO spent 15 million on each episode of the finale of its saga, knowing that it will definitely be watched all over the world, then Yabloko spent the same amount for the debut season. And even more, because there were not six episodes, but eight. With this money, the creators tried to rebuild the world of the new Stone Age, inhabited by tribes of blind people. Well, Jason Momoa has risen in price since the beginning of “Game of Thrones”: Aquaman, after all. True, “See” did not cause much excitement, and the critics turned out to be very stingy with positive assessments. But Apple still renewed the series for a second season. Perhaps from the principle: closing would be an admission of failure.

3rd place – “The Mandalorian”, from $ 15 million per episode

We must pay tribute to the creators “The Mandalorian”: To carry out their plans and meet at least some reasonable budget, they went to a lot of technical tricks. Take the giant curved screens that can display alien landscapes drawn in the Unreal Engine. But even so, the cost of a half-hour episode started at $ 15 million. The animatronic doll of Grogu, better known as Baby Yoda alone, cost two million. But such is the price of full immersion in a galaxy far, far away.

2nd place – “Brothers in Arms” and “Pacific Ocean”, $ 12.5 million and $ 20 million per episode

Only a real war can be more expensive than Star Wars – especially if the duet of Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks is taken to portray it. On the wave of success “Saving Private Ryan“They decided to create something for television that is equally large-scale, meaningful and reliable. And, as you already know, credibility comes at a price. Accurate replicas of military uniforms and weapons, complex practical effects with minimal use of graphics, large-scale scenery of several European cities built from scratch, and even filming in different countries in addition – for ten episodes “Brothers in Arms” it took $ 125 million, that is, 12.5 million per episode. Impressive, especially for 2001, but hardly a record. Hanks and Spielberg staged it nine years later, when they took up the conditional sequel to The Brothers, called “Pacific Ocean”… There, it took about 200 million for about the same. This is the absolute maximum for both the miniseries format and television in general.

1st place – Wanda / Vision, Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, $ 25 million per episode

But the first place is still with Disney – it’s not for nothing that it is the main media corporation on the planet. On its main brainchild, the cinematic universe Marvel, she will definitely not save. And if one series “Wanda / Vision”, “Falcon and the Winter Soldier” or “Loki” should cost as much as $ 25 million – so be it. Where does all this money go? We do not know. Perhaps Elizabeth Olsen, Anthony Mackie, and Tom Hiddleston have grown so bold. Maybe special effects from Industrial Light & Magic are especially expensive. Well, or it’s all about the vast geography of filming. Be that as it may, Kevin Feige and his team set a record that no one will beat for a long time. At least for now Amazon will not roll out his mega-epic on Tolkien.

Well, this is how our top most expensive TV series of our time turned out. Which ones, in your opinion, turned out to be unjustifiably expensive, and which ones came out cheaper than you thought? Write in the comments.