Disney’s upcoming live-action Star Wars show is going be very expensive. Very expensive.
It will be set seven years after the climax of Return of the Jedi, a still mostly-unexplored period in the 30 years between the original Star Wars films and The Force Awakens.
According to The New York Times, Jon Favreau’s series will run for 10 episodes, with an estimated budget for the series clocking in at a hefty $10 million per episode, which make put the series one of the priciest TV shows around in a world of rapidly-spiraling TV production costs, as prestige dramas become grander in the age of competitive subscription TV.
For comparison…
• Star Trek: Discovery costs between $8 and $8.5 million per episode
• Game of Thrones costs approximately $10 million an episode, with reports that the penultimate season will have an eye-watering budget of $15 million each
• Stranger Things’ second season reportedly cost $8 million an episode
• Altered Carbon reportedly cost between $6 and $7 million per episode
• Star Trek: The Original Series, in today’s money cost a little over $1.5 million per episode
• Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, in today’s money cost $82 million
• Cost of the USS Nostromo, $42 million in adjusted dollars – that’s minus payload, of course
But hey, Disney can afford it. Its value is estimated at about $92 million, so not far off Apple, which hit $1 trillion last week, making it the first company to ever do so.
And from a production point of view, it’s not surprising that the budget estimates are this high; they’ll need tons of CG, lots of sets, and costuming additions like weird aliens, suits of armor, and all the other things that make Star Wars look like Star Wars.
Disney is ultimately aiming for a total monopoly on Star Wars, as the struggle to reclaim sole rights for broadcast continues. Earlier this week, Bloomberg reported that Disney was trying to buy back the broadcast rights from Turner made in a deal back in 2016, but Turner isn’t budging.
Related stories
• Disney’s three Star Wars movies have already paid for the purchase of Lucasfilm
• Future Star Wars spinoffs are on hold at Lucasfilm
• Boba Fett movie, it’s official: Logan director to helm new Star Wars film
• Solo: A Star Wars Story – REVIEW
• Solo trailer recut to the Beastie Boys’ Sabotage
No Comments Yet!
You can be first one to write a comment