Disney Paid $645 Million Dollars To Produce Star Wars: Andor

[@robertdickson9319]

Arguably the best $645 million that Lucasfilm has spent in the last 10 years.

[@emoney6692]

You are absolutely right.

[@willlamark8694]

@@robertdickson9319 you’re absolutely insane if you think spending 645 million on the lowest viewed Star Wars show on Disney plus is smart

[@ramspencer5492]

Probably. strain one was amazing. But I also really liked the first two seasons of Mando.. Just on the enjoyment front.... It was also top notch.

[@nicolascarforaprodger]

@@willlamark8694those numbers aren’t really reliable the show was on the rope 10 most viewed shows for ages its views picked up after

[@alexlozn5380]

The show was a flop. That's not how the entertainment business works. 😂

[@warpathh]

Andor is the best piece of Star Wars Cinema since Rogue One and the original trilogy

[@craigoneill2216]

The original trilogy is shit the new films are just a modern retelling Luke’s a Mary Sue as much as Rey

[@ahorsewithnoname773]

@@craigoneill2216 Insane take.

[@nnnickkk]

Worth every penny. Andor is PEAK Disney/Star Wars material.

[@samuel_m84]

I love Andor, but this numbers are insane. Did they built a real Death Star with that cash?!?

[@quasisapien7762]

I totally agree that Andor is absolutely peak Star Wars.

[@Derchlands]

To be fair Andor is way better than Rise of Skywalker

[@AaronSchiavone]

Having worked as an extra on both seasons, this doesn’t surprise me when you see the sets we had! Plus some days they were spending £100k a day on extras alone!

[@BigJim5754]

Worth every penny! Andor is fantastic, can't wait for season 2.

[@leatherpastor]

When watched on a big screen, Andor looks like a top notch Star Wars movie. For the quality of writing, acting and cinematography, which is far superior than the rest of Disney’s Star Wars, Andor is worth every penny!

[@damiandekker474]

It also looks expensive. On location shoots, great vfx, and season 2, more so than season 1, is essentially going to be four movies. I can't wait! And I'm just glad that Disney clearly thinks it's worth it

[@savagemonkey123]

Shogun season 1 was about $250m for 10 episodes. But that show is just amazing.

[@AdamWParkerDotCom]

Worth. Every. Penny.

[@AdamWParkerDotCom]

It's also obvious that at best Disney has been doing "creative bookkeeping" and at worst money laundering

[@Maria_Espino]

They basically broke even too cuz they came out $107k in the green! Worth every fucking penny!!!! Give Tony Gilroy all the keys to the kingdom.

[@reneszeywerth8352]

Shogun cost 250 million $ - no one complained about that show's pricetag and from what I read it had a lower viewership for its finale (9 million) than the first season of Andor (12 million).

[@VesnaLukic-h8w]

@@reneszeywerth8352 For Shogun ,one could see where the money went.Just look at the costumes,swards and ships..That alone costs a lot.Andor didn't have any of that.Andor was a good show not because of sets or especially costumes,but because of good dialog..and I really doubt that they payed screenwriters 600 mill.

[@AlekBarbour]

@@VesnaLukic-h8w​​⁠​​⁠You can absolutely see where the money goes for Andor. We can agree movies and shows are spending too much but it’s ridiculous to argue that the money for Shogun is evident while production value for the science fiction series isn’t. And yes, I really hope a massive share of that money is going toward the writers and production staff who bring the show to life.

[@aigarsjevers1274]

Dont trust when these sites talk about the cost of SW projects. Like the line everybody ran with was that kenobi cost 90 million, which simply is not possible

[@queenofnevers6990]

I feel the smell of money laundering

[@Dec4AllTimeAlways]

It's still not as wasteful compared to The AcoShite and The Rings of Power.

[@carzombieeatery3216]

Don't care much about Disney Star Wars stuff, but I do care about Andor.

[@reginaldshort8486]

Andor deserves every dollar spent on it.

[@Ty_Quattro]

How on earth are these shows costing so much??? I loved it but...geeze man

[@Supherodude]

The insane budgets for these Star Wars shows are proof of why this franchise shouldn’t be a tv show. Some of the stuff we got on Disney+ was good like Mando and Andor but Star Wars is intended to be a cinematic experience. Star Wars for the small screen isn’t profitable.

[@Amoraszune]

Now if they released Andor in cinemas (maybe two episodes at a time)...I'd be there with bells on!

[@alexandriahasvold7223]

At this point don’t you start to think they are laundering money?

[@daniellove162]

I believe people need to watch THE PRODUCERS before they watch Disney Star Wars.

[@bryantmontero6523]

Check out how much the Acolyte cost

[@MrBuc128]

I don’t have the luxury of worrying about what a multi billion dollar corporation spends. I have my own personal expenses to worry about. Including but not limited to what streaming services I can and can’t afford

[@hjames78]

No one is worried about the spending of Disney smh. That's not the point of this video man

[@corso-travin]

And how much did KENOBI cost again? 😂😂😂 absolutely ridiculous

[@realBryanAlejandro]

Let’s hope they don’t fumble the ball in Season 2, Season 1 was legendary.

[@shabsu-b5u]

Im so glad Disney dedicate so much money to make Andor better

[@craigoneill2216]

If they keep doing that they’ll be bankrupt

[@TheRyGuyV1]

Choosing to tell the back story of a forgetable side character that died in a movie released 10 years ago kept me from watching Andor. The show might have garnered more interest if it was a new character.

[@GopherBaroque61]

I guess I'm different than most. I don't care what it cost to produce if it's a great show. And Andor *_IS GREAT._*

[@ryanashiver]

Worth every penny

[@paqnews9744]

Worth every single penny! The one time they spend money in actual quality and we are going to complain about it?

[@prezodent2371]

Somebody is fleecing someone

[@hawleygriffon9290]

But how do they make their money back on a production like this? There is very little merch and most of what was produced didnt sell. Subscriptions dont cover those costs. Or is this someone's very expensive vanity project? Will we ever know?

[@Aliddotia]

I don't care if they spent $1B on it, Andor is worth every penny

[@willlamark8694]

It’s not though because it got extremely low viewership!

[@houseoftoffee6910]

@@willlamark8694yea I never got around to watching season one. Plan on doing a binge watch right before season 2

[@mrsunshine3261]

No one watches and Disney is not making their money back💀

[@Aliddotia]

@@mrsunshine3261 cogent and witty argument mrsunshine3261 you sure showed me! I'll never watch Andor again

[@HermosaFeCatolica]

WOW. They failed. $645 MILLION for a television is a JOKE. They should have made a 3-hour gritty political thriller STAR WARS film. They WON’T be able to recover the cost. They need a MASSIVE amount of revenues for that show ALONE.

[@archelonprime]

Going with the comparison of what it costs to make a two hour movie, season one of Andor is essentially FIVE well made AND connected movies that aren't that expensive! Could there be room for cost improvements? Probably. But, for now, this is one of the few instances where Disney seems to have spent their money properly and I hope season two is least as good as the first one.

[@sekharraja9679]

And it made zero dollars, if Lucas film made a movie with that money they would have got an extra 200 mil in profits.

[@pompejio]

People tend to forget that everything thing gets more expensive year by year..by year. No wonder the recent work costs more than movies made years ago. That's at least one more reason.

[@Hamstar78]

Am all for it, Andor is goated and awesome lol

[@Josh-we9xv]

That math is a bit off as the average run time was 43 minutes over 12 episodes so season one is about 8 hours. If we get the same for season 2 that's closer to 45 million per episode and that's insane money.

[@kristinab3838]

How is your math right? $95 mil per episode times 24 episodes equals $2.28 billion!

[@Josh-we9xv]

@kristinab3838 45 not 95 😆

[@kristinab3838]

$45 million times 24 episodes is $1.08 billion. I'm very, very sorry, I went down a rabbit hole. Here's my math. Each episode averages 43 minutes. Multiply that by 24 equals 1032 minutes. $645 million divided by 1032 equals $625,000 per minute. $625,000 times 43 minutes equals $26,875,000 per episode. Or $37.5 mil per hour. Very crazy numbers for a TV show. And I kind of hate myself for taking the time to do this.

[@Josh-we9xv]

@@kristinab3838 I thought he said 650 million so I just did 640 ÷ 24 which is 41 million. So I should have said 40 to 45 million per episode. 😂 Disney should hire you, John and I as accountants

[@kristinab3838]

I get it your trolling me. No one likes a Hermione Granger. This was fun. Hollywood would love you as an accountant, they would never have to pay a residual ever. But if you aren't, with all due respect, please download a calculator.

[@rhetro777]

On Katie Sackhoff's podcast I saw a clip of her interviewing one of the SW Disney+ directors and Katie was remarking on how luxurious the productions are and how they'll shoot a ton of takes for each scene, which doesn't make a lot of financial sense for the shows that don't even have a decent script.

[@rogeriopenna9014]

Still, by the minute, S1 costed less than Ashoka or Acolyte. Even when it used real sets, and those shows used the... forgot the name of that dome they film inside.

[@iceburg2k]

Worth it, best SW since the prequels and it ain’t close

[@matiasdevaglia4541]

I love "Andor", but I don't understand how they spent so much money. Season 1 had a few action scenes, but they were quite brief. The series looks great, but so do many other much cheaper shows. Where is all that money going?

[@Ronarch2671]

Someone, or multiple someone's, is definitely skimming some money off of the top. I really can't explain it otherwise. It's outrageous.

[@nnnickkk]

It's called "Ukrainian Mathematics".

[@skyguy62]

Season 1 was also a Covid production, so you have to take that into account

[@_ripVanWinkle_]

good cgi is unnoticeable but cost alot

[@KingOfMadCows]

Sets and on location shooting aren't cheap. For example, Aldhani was filmed on location in Scotland. It costs a lot of money to bring equipment and crew into those locations.

[@cesarlopezph.d.7462]

How much in the payroll for Hollywood? The actors and everyone else. This is crazy!

[@m0601168]

This information was released because in the UK, where it is produced, they have to for tax rebate purposes as the UK has very generous tax breaks if you make tv and film here ( it’s why so much is made in the UK now) They would have maximised every expense to get the biggest rebate imaginable

[@David-rq9en]

It’s not just the best product Disney produced with Star Wars, it’s one of the best shows I’ve seen so his century. I don’t care if it costs a billion dollars. If it is as good as season one, we’ll be talking about how amazing this series is for the next couple decades.

[@Bayard1503]

I mean... yeah Andor is close to a masterpiece but WTF??? How do they get a return on that investment??

[@VesnaLukic-h8w]

I wonder where they spent all that money..There were not big visual effects,no big movie sets..I mean,House of dragon,they had dragons and didn't cost that much..

[@jacksonwan]

John, your logic is sound, but there's another factor to consider. Andor ends up costing "only" $65m per 2-hour block because all the sets that were built can be reused in season 2. Feature films are generally always more expensive because the upfront costs are all attributed solely to the 2-3 hr film. So the average costs per hour is naturally going to be high. On a TV show, that upfront costs is spread out over multiple episodes and even multiple seasons. So with the denominator being significantly higher, the average ends up being lower.

[@thewiseman80]

Good. Andor needs it. And also not assed one bit what productions spend. It doesn't matter to the viewer. If Disney spending it im not Losing sleep over it. Im currently getting 295 pound a month to live on so

[@stevemartegani]

Completely worth it!

[@derheadbanger9039]

Worth it!

[@blacksuburbiamusicgroup7122]

It’s because the show got awards. That is why they don’t mind spending the money.

[@nervenllarena4948]

yeah awards are more important than money to the studio LOL

[@Valuemeal_papi]

Disney is getting ripped off… how much was the budget for Secret Invasion again? I could keep naming shows..

[@NunyaByness]

No. That’s what they are claiming in their taxes.

[@martinjrgensen8234]

Each season i like 3-4 movies. And the production is movie quality.

[@Dxnttv]

The great thing is for once I’m confident the money was actually well spent

[@stubb64]

No one mentioning the 130 million rebate Disney gets for shooting on location in England, so actual cost is less. Worth every penny IMO, it doesn’t look that good by accident.

[@craigoneill2216]

It’s boring

[@pyramidsong]

@craigoneill2216 you have bad taste

[@craigoneill2216]

@@pyramidsong I’d argue you do

[@pyramidsong]

@ if the only data points are “likes Andor” or “dislikes Andor”, then I’d say I’m the one with good taste. All I know is you think it’s “boring”, so I can either assume you have no attention span or can’t comprehend television stories written above the level of a 12 year old’s comprehension of the world

[@craigoneill2216]

@ 😂 smartest man on the internet

[@lewiep]

There's definitely some serious Hollywood accounting going on here. This was a UK production, and they get tax cuts as a portion of reported expenditure. I doubt they've done any actual fraud, but there's certainly legal methods than can be used to inflate costs in these types of scenarios. I'd be curious of they bundled costs with developing merchandise, theme park attractions, and other general admin costs into this budget. I'm not sure of the specifics, but the headline number is only part of the story.

[@jbp9653]

Now I'm thinking that these Starwars TV series were actually supposed to be Movies, but was forced to be cut up to be Disney+ series. Because those Budgets are for a movie

[@HermosaFeCatolica]

WOW. They failed. $645 MILLION for a television is a JOKE. They should have made a 3-hour gritty political thriller STAR WARS film. They WON’T be able to recover the cost. They need a MASSIVE amount of revenues for that show ALONE.

[@artboymoy]

@@HermosaFeCatolica I'm gonna cut and paste my response as well... IMO, they could make the first season of Andor into 3 or 4 fillms. The arcs are separate enough and can be split up. Might be tough to create some intros and outros like they did for The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, but I saw the preview for Andor before the rerelease of Rogue One on the IMAX and it holds up great. I'd be happy to go to a theater and watch the episodes. They really shot it for the cinema, it's just too bad we have to watch it on a smaller screen.

[@johnnyg2501]

Sounds like a tax write off lol

[@radeadcool]

And they say, Star Trek and Star Gate were too expensive shows to make. DS9 and voyager were around 2-3 mill per ep and that was 24 eps per season. And Babylon 5 was like half of DS9's budget. Star Gate was like 2/3 of the bugdet. while STD had $8-8.5 million per episode for 65 eps.

[@kristinab3838]

That was the 90's/ early 2000's. Hollywood was actually more fiscally responsible then. Now a days 2 to 3 mill is the toilet paper budget. Which alot of Disney+ Star Wars and Marvel shows are written on.

[@LayedBackJ]

Best Star Wars content of the last millennium.

[@rocinante4609]

There's a bigger conversation to be had on spiraling Hollywood budgets. Personally for me storytelling is more imp than production values. I wouldnt mind a show with great story and acting with some iffy visuals. I think location shoots and giant physical sets will become very rare in the coming years. This is where AI can shine.

[@samuel_m84]

Absolute. I totally agree. In former days filmmaking was also the art to show more with few dollars. Hollywood has absolutely lost that, while other still get it („Godzilla -1“ for example from Japan)

[@maingamer6846]

Just got the Season 1 Steelbook for Christmas, so I definitely (and finally) will be watching it before Season 2 comes out next year.

[@davidgutierrezzg]

On one hand, money well spent, Andor is by far the best SW has done since the original trilogy (up there with Rogue Squadron, Mandalorian season 2 and Rebels). On the other hand, production costs for American TV series are just stupid nowadays. I seriously dont know where those amounts of money are going. Costs have skyrocketed since Netflix and I think in the near future we will see some correction because I dont think this is sustainable for the industry (specially for movies).

[@martinmoore7279]

But they did a lot of location filming instead of in a studio. Also what a fantastic cast, plus great writing. And this is for 2 seasons

[@quigsthevicious]

The real problem with the math is that Andor won't drive ancillary revenue. Andor bores kids = no toy or lunch box sales. It kills me cause as a Star Wars kid now in his 50's I might like this show more than Empire.

[@NoFormalTraining]

What I hope they do, what I hope they are doing, is keeping the sets they've made for each show and movie, not just so they can re-use them for follow up seasons/movies to the show they were built for, but get redressed and reused as needed for other shows/movies, abit like Star Trek did during the TNG/DS9/Voyager era.

[@glennbrown2704]

You basically need about 6.5 million full paying subscribers for 3 month to pay off the show. The will be some merchandise that helps offset the cost a bit. I agree with John that it is probably the best Star Wars Disney+ has put out, but that number is still crazy.

[@davechan8613]

It was worth it to get Star Wars reputation back up. The problem is the Acolyte ruined a lot of that good will.

[@glennbrown2704]

@@davechan8613 I would count Andor as a win for sure, but it did not convince everyone. Andor is for adults that are already Star Wars fans. It is a bit slow at times and more of a thinking man's show. It isn't capturing the imagination of kids that will become life long fans. Skeleton Crew is more likely to do that. For many, Star Wars is an adventure and Andor is not an adventure.

[@davechan8613]

@ Agreed, although some critical acclaim is never a bad thing.

[@blackmanwithcomputer]

That's insanity, given the ROI. Disney can't help but bloat their budgets.

[@artboymoy]

Money keeps rolling in every month from subscriptions. They still have money to spend, I'm guessing.

[@fateagle4life]

Hey, it's much, much better than anything else Disney has done with Star Wars.

[@pirastros1557]

dear god. we need to see a breakdown dollar by dollar. someones making out like a bandit ripping them off

[@henryedwards6030]

When say million dollars and can't stop thinking about Austin Powers

[@chaddubois8164]

Andor was great, I can't wait to see more.

[@chuckvalentine]

Very pleased to hear this, watch Andor!

[@GamerplayerWT]

Your breakdown of per hour costs between the film and the TV series is VERY relevant.

[@jakemiller4411]

Are they just lighting piles of money on fire like the joker during production?

[@trueheart1372]

A lot of this money is tech that they can use on 20 movies and digital assets that can be reused

[@luxurybuzz3681]

"All you seem to care about is money. Well I'm going to give them a new class of criminal....It's not about the money. It's about sending a message. Everything burns in this world. " - The Joker in The Dark Knight

[@chadwhitfield6946]

It's 100 times better and each season will be 3 times linger than The Force Awakens.

[@VesnaLukic-h8w]

The show was very good but I really didn't see that money on screen..I mean,there were no big space fights,no many visual effects,no big sets,and no big names as actors.

[@PieInSkyGuy]

No Green Screens. The set construction alone massive. Part of its genius was the setting

[@VesnaLukic-h8w]

@PieInSkyGuy i never said it didn't look good,but all the sets looked simple(thatvfit for the story),but not expensive at all.Can you really see 600 million dollars in it?For comparation,just look what they did in LOTR original movies..What sets did they me,and costumes..and it never costs that much.Also,making practical set is much cheeper than making big visual effects,like space battles,for example..or dragons..

[@PieInSkyGuy]

@@VesnaLukic-h8w I’d proffer that if LOTR was filmed in today’s dollars , it would cost significantly more. Furthermore, they used a bunch of CGI. Way more than Andor. Andor had hundreds of speaking parts, gobbling up a ton of London Theatre actors for parts. Every scene a set. It’s commonly overlooked. It makes sense why it had such a large budget.

[@jayj4408]

That is crazy with the ratings that it pulled and i liked the show and even i think that is way to much for that show.

[@Chi-townCollectorsCloset]

It is bad since they are not profitable on a show that not many watched.

[@KingOfMadCows]

Secret Invasion cost $220 million and had a total runtime of about 4 hours and 20 minutes, or about $50.7 million per hour. Acolyte cost $230 million and had a total runtime of about 5 hours and 20 minutes, or about $43.1 million per hour. So Andor is a lot cheaper than their most expensive shows. It's actually closer to the cost of Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which cost $150 million and had a total runtime of about 5 hours, or $30 million per hour.

[@seeloffdoee]

the cost compared to the movies is not the debate that this headline has sparked in the fandom. the debate that’s begun is why does Andor get this much money put into it while Obi-Wan got less than $100M, and why did Andor get a second season when The Acolyte got cancelled with comparable viewership and budget? I think the answers are obvious, but that is still what is being discussed in the fandom nevertheless

[@jehodocarmo5441]

Quality of writing. You can look at the page and tell whether something is worth investing. You can't get far above what's on the page.

[@seeloffdoee]

@ that’s what I’ve always said about the Kenobi vs Andor budget debate. If im a studio executive, im assigning budgets to the scripts that are given to me

[@artboymoy]

@@seeloffdoee Plus Kenobi was only suppose to be a movie, not a series and they weren't going to increase the budget for it, so they had to stretch it out.

[@Tyler-bg7rf]

They should’ve gone for the full 5 season pitch

[@jonschlitt9185]

"Andor" is one of the very few good Star Wars products that Disney has put out since the acquisition. And given that it's AMAZING and it's Disney money and not ours...worth it!

[@Vulcanerd]

Isn't part of the equation that got left out, though, is not just what it cost, but what it generated in revenue? I mean, it's all fine to say per 2hr block of Andor cost $65m vs the SW films (Disney era) and how they cost more per hour block, but every single one of them except Solo made over $1bn. I get that streaming shows are harder to quantify and everything seems more opaque, but do we think any of the series so far as has grossed them $1bn or more? I can maybe see Kenobi b/c he's a beloved character and the hype was pretty intense, but the point still remains.

[@cybergornstartrooper2157]

Click bate title, the 650 is for two Seasons. Stranger things season 4 cost 270 million which is not far off the £290 million of Andor. Could it be because all the money is in TV and studios need streaming to replace that revenue?

[@Averagejoe-wl9ym]

There’s no way they’ve recouped anywhere near what they need for S1

[@justinzotos2184]

Anytime this man sips his Stanley of Diet Coke I know he’s about to go off

[@altceva2016]

Someone is scamming them. Its wAaay to much. Somewhere someone takes advantage of them. Its like goverment spending. They pay 20000 dollars for a chair and other stuff like that

[@CD-ek3iq]

If you told me half that money went to the writers, I’d not be surprised.

[@jonschlitt9185]

"I burn my life to make a sunrise that I'll never see" may be the best line of dialogue EVER written in a Star Wars film/show.

[@johnnyg2501]

Only disney star war that had writers? Lol

[@giovannisynthesis]

Yes show was good. But I don’t see how it could cost so much. Was The Rock involved? Too many cooks in the kitchen getting a slice of cake at Disney.

[@bobbyvee9950]

They should have made it a triology of Andor films.

[@jacketernity4609]

I guess this explains why they don't go pass 6 or 8 episodes normally. I don't like it but I think I understand it now.

[@mgbomb11]

What if they spent that money on Kenobi and Boba Fett, I bet they would’ve had better writing because they would have more of a budget to work with

[@seanconnelly4043]

If you work in a pandemic and a writers/ directors strike along the way it maybe seems even more bang for you buck on (at least the first half) best product produced in the Disney era. 🤔

[@craigoneill2216]

In your opinion

[@dyugs666]

Art is eternal. Art is priceless.

[@artboymoy]

It is a tale as old as people have been around. It's timeless and I feel will hold up 30 years from now or more like TESB.

[@jacobsibert6209]

absurb amount of money , Idc how good the show is

[@chrisbrown113096]

Yeah more than half a billion for a show ? That’s reckless spending even if the show is 10/10. How could you possibly justify that for a show that’s a prequel ?

[@HermosaFeCatolica]

WOW. They failed. $645 MILLION for a television is a JOKE. They should have made a 3-hour gritty political thriller STAR WARS film. They WON’T be able to recover the cost. They need a MASSIVE amount of revenues for that show ALONE.

[@StarshipYorktown]

I honestly don't care. Andor is quality Star Wars. It also has more episodes then any of the other series (12 episodes per season, for a total of 24). You can see where the money went on screen, especially when compared to garbage like The Acolyte.

[@IGotThisGeorgeLopez1]

Episodes of the Acolyte and Obi-Wan are too short

[@JezzaBondiBeach]

Crazy given the first season had little views 🤷🏼‍♂️

[@labguru7628]

I'm sure it's grown over time and has led to subscriber growth.

[@happycloudgamer1088]

I think i like Skelleton crew better. Would be nice to know how much that on cost

[@SilkSonic-c9z]

The boys first 3 seasons cost 10m per episode 240m for 3 seasons Much cheaper and was wayyy more popular than anything recent star wars Star wars is overrated asf It's the iPhone of tv shows

[@puma12345ace]

You comparing a show that is set in our time and can easily be shot on any location with a show that is set in space and on different planets... The costs for sets and vfx alone is massivly different. But yes, it's still way too high 🤣