We live in a time in which TV shows are getting bigger and bigger budgets, almost as big, if not bigger than some blockbuster movies. HBO’s Game of Thrones was one of the first big-budget shows that created that domino effect after which producers started to invest more money into the content for small screens. Of course, Game of Thrones wasn’t the very first, but big-budget TV shows before that were mostly ahead of their own time. For example, do you remember Rome? A TV show that was planned to last five seasons, but it was canceled after the second season due to huge production costs.
Today, producers are practically racing who will spend more money on their biggest and most ambitious TV projects. Back in 2011, when the original Game of Thrones series premiered, producers were spending approximately $6 million per episode, and as the show’s popularity and ambition were increasing, the last season of the series has cost $15 million per episode. And when we look at it today, that seems low compared to the upcoming shows House of the Dragon, which is a prequel to Game of Thrones, and the upcoming Lord of the Rings TV show, which is already set to become the most expensive TV show ever made.
As Variety reported, the first season of House of the Dragon will cost $20 million per episode, which is already higher than the last season of the original Game of Thrones series, but even that seems low compared to the first season of the upcoming Lord of the Rings series which will cost around $60 million per episode! Yes, three times more than House of the Dragon and ten times more than the first season of the original Game of Thrones series.
House of the Dragon is set 200 years before the events of the original Game of Thrones series. The Lord of the Rings series is set during the second age of the Middle-earth, so long before the events of the famous Lord of the Rings movie trilogy.
House of the Dragon will premiere on August 21 on HBO and HBOMax. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power will premiere on September 2 on Amazon Prime Video. The fans of the fantasy genre will have one exciting summer.
