Game of Thrones: Features - A Budget to be Reckoned With
"Those are huge, prestigious productions. Game of Thrones is lavish by any reasonable standard, up there with acclaimed period programs such as Deadwood. Consider the networks: HBOs productions are positively extravagant compared to their shows. Heroes was considered very expensive at $4 million per episode, and has had cutbacks since. Lost in its first season was rumored to cost about $5 million an episode, and that with quite a large cast and extensive location shooting.
Game of Thrones has an extraordinary budget, its reported £30m/$45m budget potentially equivalent to a budget 18-45% higher elsewhere in the world. We think 20-25% higher is the most solid calculation we can support, making fewer assumptions regarding the Paint Hall facility lease, the application of the Film Tax Relief and cash incentive, and simply looking at it primarily in terms of lower production costs due to average wages and such other figures the economic report hints at.
Using this middle-of-the-road, safe estimate, it means the £30/$45m production is equivalent to one thats as expensive as one that osts $5.4-$5.6m per hour in the U.S. In which case, its absolutely among the A-list of regular series television productions in the U.S. and around the world. The series is being hailed as the most expensive hour-long regular television series to ever be filmed in Europe, something which we havent verified but so far weve not found anything to contradict it as of yet.
So if youre worried about the budget? Dont be. HBOs investing major funds into this, making the show its second-most expensive regular hour-long series on the air, and its third-most richly budgeted regular hour-long once the cheaper, foreign shooting location, the tax relief, and other production breaks are factored in."
Calendar Man getting some shine.
