A new report over at Puck News indicates that the upcoming fifth and final season of Netflix’s supernatural drama “Stranger Things” looks set to have potentially the biggest budget of any single season of television ever made.
Netflix is reportedly spending between $50 to $60 million per episode for the fifth season, which clocks in at eight episodes. That brings its total budget to anywhere between $400 million to $480 million for the full run.
To put that in comparison, the fourth season cost $30 million per episode while the original first season of the show clocked in at just $6 million per episode.
Amazon holds the record for the most expensive single season of a series with “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” at $58 million per episode/$465 million for the first season, and “Citadel” at $50 million per episode/$300 million for the season.
In both cases, there were extenuating circumstances – millions in costs involving the rights to the franchise were absorbed into the “Rings of Power” first season bill, while “Citadel” underwent a massive overhaul and reshoots during production, which is what drove the budget up.
In the case of “Stranger Things” though, part of the reason for the cost appears to be the episode length. The outlet indicates each of the eight episoded of the new run will sport feature-length episodes clocking in at 90-120 minutes each.
The first four episodes will arrive on November 26th followed by three on December 25th and the final episode on December 31st.
