Among the all the records HBO's show "Game of Thrones" has broken, having the biggest budget for a single episode is not one of them. Yet. The showstarted with anaverage of $6 million per episode in Season 1 and continued to raise their budget. In Season 6, for example, each episode had an average of a$10 million budget. What is even more, it has finally attracted more than 8 million viewers per episode with their Season 6 Finale.The current record of the most expensive episode is held by ER-- the show that made George Clooney famous. One of their episodes' estimated cost was $15 million.
Will the legendary "Game of Thrones" cross that number as well?
'Game of Thrones' budget
The budget HBO creators had for each got episode was pretty open. Starting with a Pilot that costsanywhere from $5 to $10 million, they had a luxury of using more than $6 million on every episode. Episodes like "Blackwater" from Season 3, "Red Wedding" from Season 3 and "Hardhome" from Season 5 were a bit more costly, and the Jon Snow against Ramsay Bolton battle episode cost more than $10 million. In fact, HBO spent about $100 million on Season 6.
If HBO decides to spend $100 million on Season 7 and 8 as well, they will get a record for the most expensive episode. How?Because Season 7 and 8 will have only seven and six episodes, respectively.
That means that that $100 million won't be spread between 10 episodes, but only seven and six.For Season 7 we will have seven episodes. This gets us to $14 million per episode. Still not a record.
What about Season 8 budget?
Season 8 will only have six episodes. If HBO truly decides to use all $100 million on those episodes, each episode will average more than $16 million.
And that is finally a record-breaking figure!Of course, HBO could cut the budget for Season 8. But can they really? First of all, the viewership numbers have gone up with every season. We started with 2.5 million viewers in Season 1 and came to 7.7 million in Season 6. Thrice the viewership should justify thrice the budget, right?
On the other hand, the costs will also go up. I'm not talking about the different location and camera crews, make-up artists and the like -- there are 3 factors that will contribute to higher costs and a need for a big "Game of Thrones" Season 8 budget.
- Actors are getting paid more. The show has 3 classes of actors by salary. The highest Tier A actors portraying Tyrion, Dany, Jon Snow, Cersei and Jaime Lannister were initially paid $160,000 per episode each. In Season 4 their salary was $300,000 per episode. In Season 6, they were paid $500,000. With such increases, we can count on top actors to have a combined pay of more than $3 million per episode.
- CGI will be used. And a lot more than in previous seasons. With White Walkers all over the place and dragon shots, the CGI costs will go through the roof.
- Going out with a bang. The last episodes are always the most expensive ones in each season. Imagine how costly the end of the whole series will be.
Season 7 will a bit late, and Season 8 is supposed to be the last. Do you agree with that?
