The next season of "Game of Thrones" won't come cheap. In fact, it will cost more money to make each episode than most people will ever see in their lifetime. That's the price of having dragons flying around, though. Fans will ultimately prove if the price tag on Season 8 is worth it for HBO. In all likelihood, it will be. But the money raises expectations, perhaps to a level that will be hard for the producers to meet. The long wait doesn't help matters either.

Putting a price on Season 8

Variety first reported how much it would cost to make each episode of Season 8 of the popular show.

They claimed that each episode would cost at least $15 million to make. With the possibility of shooting scenes over again, plus the special effects budget, that could balloon to as much as $19 million an episode. The final season of "Game of Thrones" is expected to last just six epic episodes. Do the math: producers could be spending anywhere from $90 million to well over $100 million on just six episodes of television.

The good news is that each episode is expected to be the length of a feature movie, pushing past the 80-minute record for the longest episode in "Game of Thrones" history. Suddenly, $15 million doesn't look like as obscene of an amount in comparison to film budgets for blockbusters.

Fans will get to watch a movie-quality television show every week for six straight weeks. Then, they'll get to commiserate together over Season 8 - the final season.

'Game of Thrones' budget in perspective

Budgets for television shows have steadily risen as more platforms have become popular. Netflix and Amazon Prime produce content that inverts the standards of television and grant producers more money to do so.

That being said, the Season 8 budget of "Game of Thrones" blows away some of the budgets for shows that have been criticized (and even canceled) for their high price tags, such as Netflix's "The Get Down" and "The Crown."

The most expensive film ever made was "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides," which cost $378.5 million.

Adjusted for inflation, it exceeds $400 million. There are plenty of amazing movies that were created for much less than Season 8 of "Game of Thrones." "The Blair Witch Project" was made for just $60,000. "Napoleon Dynamite" clocked in at well under half a million. Even "Rocky" cost just a cool million to make; it's not about the price, but the quality of the final product.