Television shows are starting to have movie-level budgets, reaching upwards of $100 million for one season. HBO is known for their hefty price tags on TV shows, with shows like Game of Thrones and Westworld having huge budgets for their insane special effects. Netflix has also coughed up some hard cash for shows like Sense 8, which travelled around the world for filming and cost 9$ million per episode. Let’s take a look at the cost of some staple shows that delivered some of the biggest plot twists in television history.
The Walking Dead
$3 million per episode: Originally, the show had a budget of $3.4 million per episode, but AMC became a lot more frugal, lowering it to $2.75 million per episode after the original show runner was changed.
Game of Thrones
10 million per episode: The first Game of Thrones pilot, which was scrapped and re-filmed, already cost HBO over $20 million, but Game of Thrones has had a history of upping the ante, and price tag, each season. What started at $6 million per episode quickly grew to $10 million per episode on average. For the eighth season, the reported budget for the final six episodes is said to be $15 million per episode.
Lost
$4 million per episode: For 2005, this was a hefty budget. But what’s more surprising about this ABC show is that the pilot reportedly cost between 10 and 14 million dollars to shoot, being the most expensive pilot ever shot for the broadcasting company.
Westworld
$9 million per episode: The premier season had a price tag of over $100 million, $25 million of which were spent on the pilot alone. HBO had high hopes for this drama, which garnered rave reviews.
Now that you know the cost of the shows that have been delivering some of the biggest twists, hopefully it’ll make you appreciate them just a little bit more.
