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Disney has revealed that the cost of making Star Wars streaming show Andor has surged to $645 million (£504.8 million) after it spent a record $290.9 million (£232.1 million) last year on filming its second season which will debut in April 2025.
It is the highest-ever annual spending on a Star Wars production disclosed in Disney’s public filings. The staggering sum eclipses the $280.7 million (£211.8 million) spent on Star Wars: The Last Jedi over the almost 11 month period to March 16, 2019. Likewise, it is higher than the $243.8 million (£193.6 million) cost of The Force Awakens, Disney’s debut entry in the sci-fi saga, during the year-ending November 15, 2016.
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Remarkably, the cost of Andor’s second season is set to soar even higher as the $290.9 million was spent during the year to November 22, 2023 which doesn’t even cover all of the shoot. Filming began in November 2022 but was suspended in summer 2023 due to the SAG-AFTRA strike. It resumed in January this year and wrapped the following month though this was far from the end of the story.
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Worth every penny. One of the few good Star Wars shows.
Skeleton crew has been a blast so far. Especially if you were raised on 80s kid adventure movies.
This is how I learned there is a new star wars show
So it’s easy to calculate the cost of how much a movie makes once it’s released. Can someone tell me how shows like these calculate it’s value? Do they just look at the viewings to see how many watched it and they have a predetermined amount per view? Or is it more complicated than that? It just seems wild to me that for something that costs so much, how do you determine if it was worth the price or if it took a loss? I’m sure it brings some new subscribers briefly and some long term, but is that worth the amount the show costs?
I think all the areas you raise are what they look for to determine the value for the show. The only thing to add is brand perception, Andor is the most critical acclaimed Star Wars project since Disney purchased it. They’ve had bad Star Wars movies, bad Star Wars TV Shows, a bad Star Wars hotel, they need Andor to keep interest in Star Wars. When they paid 4 billion to George Lucas, I’m sure they figured they would be able to make that money back perpetually as long as they keep people interested in Star Wars.
even with the ‘bad’ movies, ‘bad’ shows, and that ridiculous hotel, the $4b purchase price was covered long ago. they’re netting like $1b a year on average off star wars so far.
Sure they covered the purchase price, and are making a profit, but i’d have to imagine they thought they would be making a lot more money from the brand than they are. In an investor document filed with the SEC earlier this year, the return on investment for the Star Wars IP 4th for at 2.9x, where as Frozen has a 9.9x return.
Also in this document it states that Disney+ is negative $1.4 billion. I’m unsure how the accounting was performed, but would have to imagine that at least some of production costs for Star Wars shows on Disney+ are being attributed to Disney+, whereas the merchandising profits (Baby Yoda dolls) are being attributed to the Star Wars brand directly, inflating the Star Wars return on investment.
With streaming shows, they’ll have various metrics to judge it’s worth. However, Andor has pretty low viewing figures and, while the steel books have sold like hot cakes, it is thought that there might not have been a series 2 if they hadn’t signed up to a full 24 episodes from the start. However, the overwhelming good press for a Star Wars film or TV series has to also be worth something to them when everything else has landed awkwardly or even badly.
