The budget: Pay 3 get 4

We touched upon budgeting issues in an earlier post when the first concrete figures were made public (£30 million, or 45 million in U.S. dollars, for the first season). Now Elio wrote an article at Westeros discussing the budget of Game of Thrones in depth, with the aim of establishing what this amount means in terms of comparison to budgets of other shows. They came across a U.K. Film Council economic report which was helpful in their calculations. After we weigh in all the factors – lower costs in Northern Ireland, tax reliefs, cash incentives, and the heavy subsidies on the rent of studio space in Belfast – the reported budget translates to an estimated equivalent of about $55 million. The conclusion?

So if you’re worried about the budget? Don’t be. HBO’s investing major funds into this, making the show its second-most expensive regular hour-long series on the air [after Boardwalk Empire], and its third-most richly budgeted regular hour-long [after BE and Rome].

Hear Me Roar: We had a good feeling about this, and now the research into the local economic conditions makes the maths more specific. While spending less, which works in favour of HBO ordering further seasons, the show runners will not have to make sacrifices in the quality department. No doubt encouraging!

• Published on 03/16/2010 at 10:53 AM CDT
• Last updated on 03/16/2010 at 1:45 PM CDT