This graph shows the most expensive TV shows ever produced based on average cost per episode. Budget figures reflect verified production costs from trade publications including Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and Forbes, (with some cross referencing from Wikipedia) calculated across all seasons to provide true per-episode averages rather than inflated first-season costs.
Amazon Prime has the top two most expensive shows ever made with Citadel at $50M per episode and The Rings of Power at $47.8M per episode. Disney+ has four of the top ten (Secret Invasion, Andor, The Acolyte, WandaVision).
Streaming platforms occupy eight of the ten spots, with only HBO’s The Pacific and House of the Dragon representing traditional television.
Stranger Things – having the most episodes – has the biggest total budget at nearly a billion dollars, followed by The Rings of Power and Andor.
Tools: Excel and Illustrator
Sources: In graph
Credit goes to u/statspanda
For more data about the world check out our new website [StatsPanda.com](http://StatsPanda.com)
Original StatsPanda Visualization
ContrlAltCreate on
I have never heard of Citadel, how heavily was/is it marketed if its the most expensive per episode?
DoctorZoinks on
Secret Invasion…..hope it became a tax write off cause boy.
roodootootootoo on
I remember seeing a promo for Citadel, then just forgot about it. How did they outspend LOTR, Marvel, and Star Wars?!
breakfasteveryday on
Most expensive ever or on Prime? Also it is mind-boggling how many of these are shitty or mid.
timmeh87 on
this kind of thing really only makes sense if it is adjusted for inflation… is it?
edit nvm a list is here and it ~~contradicts the graph~~ someone points out its by individual season
Just goes to show that more money doesn’t always equal better product.
warlocktx on
The $$ for Secret Invasion must have been for Samuel Jackson’s salary, because it certainly wasn’t spent on the script or the SFX
stephenBB81 on
I like this graphic.
Friends and I were talking about something similar a couple of weeks ago though we were wondering what the most expensive TV show per viewer was. ( although none of us wanted to do the leg work to figure it out)
Like did Rings of power get double the viewership of house of the Dragon? is so the value is close to the same, but if not, well makes sense for it not continuing kind of thing.
Urban_Heretic on
Yeah, but Discovery Channels’ 2006 show, “Ocean’s Deadliest” cost us Steve Irwin, so that’s my #1.
Revolutionary-Farm55 on
Why the hell is Citadel. Got to sting that no one has even heard of it…
kewlacious on
Didn’t Stanger Things season 5 break the record?
TacoStuffingClub on
I’ve seen Wandavision and ST. That’s it. Ouch.
kayl_breinhar on
There were parts of *Masters of the Air* that I liked, but with how CGI-heavy it was, I’m having a hard time believing it was expensive.
What wasn’t CGI was just “stuff happening in rooms.”
sagevallant on
As if we didn’t already know we need more Andors and fewer Acolytes.
vincenzodelavegas on
Andor is truly worth it, * even * if you don’t like the Star Wars world, this TV show is for you.
Edit: Meant to write “even” if you don’t like Star Wars.
Fuskeduske on
Funny how most of the shows are forgettable at best
NonFatPrawn on
It shows in Andor, all those big sets look really good
agentdrozd on
All that money and only one good show
perksforlater on
How can Wandavision cost so much?
Kapot_ei on
Excellent visualisation why budget doesn’t equal quality. Half of these suck.
brooke360 on
I thought Three Body was like 20mil an episode? Shouldn’t that be top of the list?
Uptons_BJs on
One thing to consider is that traditionally, a major stream of income for actors on successful TV shows was endless residuals once your show ended up on syndication. Traditionally speaking, your show needs 100 episodes to get to syndication.
Thus, a lot of actors were gladly willing to take much lower upfront salaries to ensure that the show succeeds, and to have the budget to make more episodes. Streamers on the other hand, don’t typically pay residuals, thus, it costs a lot more in up front budget for them to make shows.
Based on what I can find, the core cast of Friends were making $20 million/year each, while the core cast of the Big Bang Theory makes $10 million/year each. Obviously, TV actors were willing to accept the deal for less up front pay, on the tradeoff that if the show succeeds they will receive millions a year in residuals for the rest of their life.
max_trax on
Wow, and remember when Rome was cancelled for being too expensive 🙁
stealth_viper on
disney and amzn are clearly not very good at this
Hyperion1144 on
I’ve only watched two of those. I’ve never even heard of Citadel. It must have been terrible.
Karash770 on
Where did all of that budget for Stranger Things go? The show is not super heavy on CGI and the actors weren’t particularly Hollywood’s A-Tier.
I’m surprised One Piece isn’t up there, thought I heard someone calling it the most expensive show Netflix ever produced.
DZello on
So much money, for results that are more than mediocre.
Daleyplanit on
I’m stunned that The Crown isn’t on this list.
Its_BassDaddy on
Andor is the best on this list, hands down.
TooSmalley on
The flop to success ratio here is wild.
Also lol @ Citadel. I hope that show gets reviled to be a money laundering scheme because their has to be an explanation for why something so expensive is ass.
MedonSirius on
Andor ❤️ so sad that it has to end. Everyone who watched Rouge One knows that, but man what an awesome series!
MidniteEye on
I thought it was Almost Human?
hugganao on
holy shit how is citadel so expensive?
saw it and didnt look anything spectacular.
lantz83 on
Only ever heard of two of these, and only partially watched one. Interesting.
glacinda on
I’m so old. I definitely thought LOST would’ve been on here for some reason.
deleted-user on
Is House of the Dragon any good? I haven’t been following GoT since the show ended.
mrspremise on
Crazy that the most talked about show of the last 3 months (Heated Rivalry) had a budget of about three fiddy.
_Toy-Soldier_ on
No money laundering was involved in these makings
hiimmatt314 on
I’d be curious to know the different funding Citadel got. If i recall it got released during a period of time where Citadel – Ken fucking Griffin was getting a lot of attention naked shorting. Good way to kill search engines on Citadel.
In the recent batch of Epstein files, what do you know, “Ken fucking Griffin” appears, alongside with them talking about naked shorting on certain companies being a rounding error of the level of corruption that is rampant and on going.
atrydas on
To me, Amazon’s whole thing is starting to sound like money laundering.
Toasted_Sugar_Crunch on
I absolutely adore rings of power. On my second watching of it. The prop design and scenery is gorgeous. I recommend all Middle Earth lovers watch it.
44 Comments
This graph shows the most expensive TV shows ever produced based on average cost per episode. Budget figures reflect verified production costs from trade publications including Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and Forbes, (with some cross referencing from Wikipedia) calculated across all seasons to provide true per-episode averages rather than inflated first-season costs.
Amazon Prime has the top two most expensive shows ever made with Citadel at $50M per episode and The Rings of Power at $47.8M per episode. Disney+ has four of the top ten (Secret Invasion, Andor, The Acolyte, WandaVision).
Streaming platforms occupy eight of the ten spots, with only HBO’s The Pacific and House of the Dragon representing traditional television.
Stranger Things – having the most episodes – has the biggest total budget at nearly a billion dollars, followed by The Rings of Power and Andor.
Tools: Excel and Illustrator
Sources: In graph
Credit goes to u/statspanda
For more data about the world check out our new website [StatsPanda.com](http://StatsPanda.com)
Original StatsPanda Visualization
I have never heard of Citadel, how heavily was/is it marketed if its the most expensive per episode?
Secret Invasion…..hope it became a tax write off cause boy.
I remember seeing a promo for Citadel, then just forgot about it. How did they outspend LOTR, Marvel, and Star Wars?!
Most expensive ever or on Prime? Also it is mind-boggling how many of these are shitty or mid.
this kind of thing really only makes sense if it is adjusted for inflation… is it?
edit nvm a list is here and it ~~contradicts the graph~~ someone points out its by individual season
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_television_series](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_television_series)
Second edit holy hell i didn’t realize LOTR (5 season commitment) cost a billion dollars. jesus its like 10 individual movies
Damn I’ve only seen Stranger Things out of the bunch, are the others worth it or just marketing hype?
Me: why haven’t I heard of Secret Invasion?
Rotten Tomatoes: […](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/secret_invasion/s01)
Me: oh
Just goes to show that more money doesn’t always equal better product.
The $$ for Secret Invasion must have been for Samuel Jackson’s salary, because it certainly wasn’t spent on the script or the SFX
I like this graphic.
Friends and I were talking about something similar a couple of weeks ago though we were wondering what the most expensive TV show per viewer was. ( although none of us wanted to do the leg work to figure it out)
Like did Rings of power get double the viewership of house of the Dragon? is so the value is close to the same, but if not, well makes sense for it not continuing kind of thing.
Yeah, but Discovery Channels’ 2006 show, “Ocean’s Deadliest” cost us Steve Irwin, so that’s my #1.
Why the hell is Citadel. Got to sting that no one has even heard of it…
Didn’t Stanger Things season 5 break the record?
I’ve seen Wandavision and ST. That’s it. Ouch.
There were parts of *Masters of the Air* that I liked, but with how CGI-heavy it was, I’m having a hard time believing it was expensive.
What wasn’t CGI was just “stuff happening in rooms.”
As if we didn’t already know we need more Andors and fewer Acolytes.
Andor is truly worth it, * even * if you don’t like the Star Wars world, this TV show is for you.
Edit: Meant to write “even” if you don’t like Star Wars.
Funny how most of the shows are forgettable at best
It shows in Andor, all those big sets look really good
All that money and only one good show
How can Wandavision cost so much?
Excellent visualisation why budget doesn’t equal quality. Half of these suck.
I thought Three Body was like 20mil an episode? Shouldn’t that be top of the list?
One thing to consider is that traditionally, a major stream of income for actors on successful TV shows was endless residuals once your show ended up on syndication. Traditionally speaking, your show needs 100 episodes to get to syndication.
Thus, a lot of actors were gladly willing to take much lower upfront salaries to ensure that the show succeeds, and to have the budget to make more episodes. Streamers on the other hand, don’t typically pay residuals, thus, it costs a lot more in up front budget for them to make shows.
Based on what I can find, the core cast of Friends were making $20 million/year each, while the core cast of the Big Bang Theory makes $10 million/year each. Obviously, TV actors were willing to accept the deal for less up front pay, on the tradeoff that if the show succeeds they will receive millions a year in residuals for the rest of their life.
Wow, and remember when Rome was cancelled for being too expensive 🙁
disney and amzn are clearly not very good at this
I’ve only watched two of those. I’ve never even heard of Citadel. It must have been terrible.
Where did all of that budget for Stranger Things go? The show is not super heavy on CGI and the actors weren’t particularly Hollywood’s A-Tier.
I’m surprised One Piece isn’t up there, thought I heard someone calling it the most expensive show Netflix ever produced.
So much money, for results that are more than mediocre.
I’m stunned that The Crown isn’t on this list.
Andor is the best on this list, hands down.
The flop to success ratio here is wild.
Also lol @ Citadel. I hope that show gets reviled to be a money laundering scheme because their has to be an explanation for why something so expensive is ass.
Andor ❤️ so sad that it has to end. Everyone who watched Rouge One knows that, but man what an awesome series!
I thought it was Almost Human?
holy shit how is citadel so expensive?
saw it and didnt look anything spectacular.
Only ever heard of two of these, and only partially watched one. Interesting.
I’m so old. I definitely thought LOST would’ve been on here for some reason.
Is House of the Dragon any good? I haven’t been following GoT since the show ended.
Crazy that the most talked about show of the last 3 months (Heated Rivalry) had a budget of about three fiddy.
No money laundering was involved in these makings
I’d be curious to know the different funding Citadel got. If i recall it got released during a period of time where Citadel – Ken fucking Griffin was getting a lot of attention naked shorting. Good way to kill search engines on Citadel.
In the recent batch of Epstein files, what do you know, “Ken fucking Griffin” appears, alongside with them talking about naked shorting on certain companies being a rounding error of the level of corruption that is rampant and on going.
To me, Amazon’s whole thing is starting to sound like money laundering.
I absolutely adore rings of power. On my second watching of it. The prop design and scenery is gorgeous. I recommend all Middle Earth lovers watch it.