We live in the golden age of cinematography. Television companies and streaming services invest a lot of money to enrich their program with quality content. Following the interests of the audience, they compete with each other by broadcasting the best and most interesting content. Based on the large ratings, production companies can earn a lot, but in order to get there, they have to invest a lot. Low-budget series are numerous, but their success is minimal.
The ones that kept you in front of the TV screen the longest, were probably the most expensive ones. Of course, this may not be the rule, but the practice has shown that this is a common case. The process of creating a good project involves a lot of time, work, technical capabilities, quality actors, adequate costumes, and many people who have key roles with their presence behind the cameras.
Clearly, it isn’t cheap or easy to realize a good television idea. We have highlighted out the most expensive TV shows ever. If you’ve been wondering if your favorite TV series is on this list… well, check below.
1. Game of Thrones
We knew you would guess who took first place on the list. You were probably one of those who couldn’t wait for the next season… and the next one… and another… Although its quality has been discussed for a long time, it still brings big profits to production and HBO.
From season to season, the need for costumes, scenography, actors grew, and thus the costs increased. Lots of different shooting locations, realistic dragons were just a small part of this extremely expensive project.
The first season ended with $70.000.000 invested. In each subsequent one, $10.000.000 were allocated per episode. In the end, the eighth episode turned out to be the most expensive one, with $15.000.000 spent for each broadcast episode.
2. Friends
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHcPhdZBngw
A humorous series that each of us could identify with – we choked with laughter watching short episodes on a daily basis. In order to achieve such a large audience, a lot was invested, and even more, was earned.
The main six characters of this TV show, which won the hearts of many generations, earned several million dollars per episode. Although the production tried to minimize costs, they couldn’t go below $10.000.000 per episode.
The series is still so popular today that this six-member crew earns 2% of their earnings from broadcasting on Netflix. It has been speculated for a long time that Netflix will no longer broadcast the TV show, but whether it will be like that… we’ll see.
3. Rome
The ancient period of history is something that has intrigued the public for a long time. Thus, the series describing that period always had good ratings. One of them is the ‘’Rome’’.
Very expensive costumes that were supposed to give an adequate visual representation of soldiers from the ancient period were just one of the items that required tons of money. The convincingly presented buildings of ancient Rome, the population of that time, and the first-class materials brought from distant lands seemed like a good idea. All this led to a cost of $110.000.000 in the first season, and that is exactly what limited the duration of the series to only two seasons.
4. Marco Polo
The historical drama about Marco Polo, as well as many other great stories from the past, is also one of the most expensive projects so far. Costume design, technical background, and a large cast cost Netflix as much as $9.000.000 per episode.
The fact that this project was too expensive is evidenced by the piece of information that states that it didn’t last long. Two seasons of the series were broadcast and on that occasion, about $200.000.000 dollars were spent.
It’s one of the accomplishments that gathered some fans all around the world and it showed that the topic related to history doesn’t need to be boring or worn out. Regardless of the age of the series, if you allow yourself a good aerial installation, for example, with providers like mikeharrisaerialandsatellite.co.uk, you won’t even notice the difference – the story will be brought to the modern times specially for you.
5. The Crown
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLXYfgpqb8A
The royal story of the life of Elizabeth II deservedly takes its place on this list. Great efforts have been made to present everything in a credible way. Only the Queen’s dress itself was worth $37.000 – and not to even mention other costumes – about 7.000 of them. You can find such costumes and many more on sites such as this one. A life-size replica of Buckingham Palace was also made. Three seasons have been released, and a fourth is expected – the estimated budget per episode is $6.500.00.
6. Big Bang Theory
This show, like many others, took time to reach the right audience. As that moment approached, the budget grew. “Big bang theory” is experiencing its market expansion over time – millions of viewers spend a lot of time in front of the screen watching the series.
Rumors say that the amount of the budget was 9 million dollars – that the main characters were paid between 750.000 and a million dollars per episode. This large amount can be attributed to the fees as well as numerous famous actors, technical equipment, scenography, costume design, and other costs that filming entails.
7. Frasier
To everybody’s satisfaction, this comedy was on our TV screens in the period from 1993 to 2004. Although it was made in the form of shorter episodes of about 20 minutes, it still required a large amount of money for its realization.
$5.200.000 per episode is considered by many to be too high a figure. Despite the large fee of actor Kelsey Grammer, it’s incomprehensible what required such a large sum of the money. NBC Network couldn’t bear such costs, which is why it canceled this show in 2004, although it’s speculated that there’s a possibility of her return to the small screens.
8. Stranger Things
According to statistics, 41.000.000 families have been loyal viewers of this show. This was enough for the Netflix network to keep going and make sure to continue broadcasting.
$6.000.000 was the value of each episode of the first season. While the latter can boast an even better placement of $8.000.000 per episode. The advertising value was great as well, but it’s believed that there was a lot of help from sponsors. All those things were the ones that made “Stranger Things” stand out, as it enjoyed great public attention and all seasons were well attended.
For many of you, these figures were probably surprising and unexpected. But now that you know how much they’re valued, it may give you an idea of their quality and encourage you to watch some shows that you haven’t wanted to watch for some reason or haven’t even heard of before!