By Disney has revealed that the cost of making its highly acclaimed “Star Wars” streaming series “Andor” has surged to $645 million over its two seasons to date after it spent a record $290.9 million in 2023 on filming the show’s second season reports Forbes.
The outlet has gone through the recently disclosed and publicly filed records which revealed the number – the highest-ever annual spending on a “Star Wars” production. It beats the previous record spend of $280.7 million spent on “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” back in a period ending March 2019.
That $291 million figure is hardly the final cost for the show’s second season either as the records only cover spending up to November 22nd 2023. Due to the SAG-AFTRA strikes, production on the second season was suspended across the back half of 2023.
Shooting then resumed in January this year and wrapped the following month. That has been followed by a year of post-production with visual effects added. The first season racked up tens of millions in costs in post-production, the second will certainly do the same but those costs won’t be publicly released for until the end of next year.
The production makes heavy use of practical effects and physical sets which partly explains the large costs for the filming phase. Production companies filming in the UK have to file annual financial statements – doing so reveals the costs of streaming shows in terms of production (but NOT marketing costs).
The filings also reveal that the series has received a massive $129.3 million reimbursement in return for filming in the U.K. with financial statements confirming “the final cost was forecasted to be within the production budget.”
In September came the news that “The Acolyte” came in at a cost of $231 million for the eight-episode season – working out to $28.75 million per episode. As “Andor” Season 2 comes in at a twelve-episode count, even with a bunch more added for post-production costs it will potentially be close to “The Acolyte” on a per episode cost.
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