Netflix Sci-Fi Show from Game of Thrones' Creators Cost a Bizarre $20M per Episode
Benioff and Weiss’ 3 Body Problem is ridiculously expensive: the upcoming Netflix sci-fi series costs over $160M for just eight episodes — more than Game of Thrones!
Summary:
- After finishing Game of Thrones, David Benioff and Dan Weiss began work on Netflix ’s 3 Body Problem.
- The upcoming sci-fi show will tackle the issues of technical progress, global conspiracy, and spacetime.
- 3 Body Problem Season 1 had a budget of over $160M, making its every episode twice as costly as Game of Thrones’ late seasons.
After making a name for themselves with Game of Thrones, David Benioff and Dan Weiss moved on to a different platform and a different genre. Currently, the masters of endings are working on Netflix’s sci-fi show 3 Body Problem, and thanks to their fame — or notoriety — D&D were given a ridiculous budget to play around with.
3 Body Problem Aims to “Redefine” Sci-Fi
Time, space, and the human race all come into play in 3 Body Problem, the upcoming Benioff and Weiss TV show based on Liu Cixin’s book trilogy. When a chain of events begins to unravel and put in danger humankind’s entire survival, scientists from around the world — and from different eras — unite to prevent it.
The biggest scientific experiments yielding incoherent results; best scientists taking their own lives; and time and space warping to connect different continents and times. Nothing is clear, but everything is pointing at a massive conspiracy aiming to undermine humanity’s technical progress and lead to a tragedy worse than anything our kind has ever seen.
A sci-fi show of such a grand design can’t be cheap, of course; but just how expensive it might be, you may ask? Oh, trust us: it’s absolutely obnoxious.
3 Body Problem Season 1 Costs Over $160M
Netflix seemingly spared all its change to D&D: the power duo of showrunners received an MCU- level production budget to play with. The eight-episode Season 1 of 3 Body Problem reportedly cost over $160M to make, meaning that every single episode of the upcoming show had a budget of $20M or higher! That’s bizarre.
For reference, Game of Thrones, Benioff and Weiss’ previous labor of love and the previous most expensive show ever, had the maximum budget of $15M for the finale. Other episodes in the latter seasons cost around $10M each.
We’re afraid to even ask what D&D are doing with 3 Body Problem that consumes twice as much budget as the Blackwater, the Battle of Bastards, or the Long Night every hour.
Source: Wall Street Journal