While games might dominate the fantasy and science fiction genres in quantity, streaming and TV series that cover these genres continue to be popular, too.
Creating a TV series can be costly, and the Sci-Fi and fantasy genres require lots of special effects that make them particularly expensive to create.
We have highlighted the most expensive fantasy and Sci-Fi shows produced to date.
If you’d to see a full list of series, not just Fantasy and Sci-fi, you can find it here.
Game of Thrones – $90 million
It should come as no surprise to see Game of Thrones on this list.
HBO’s hit show was a global phenomenon and had viewers on the edge of their seats for the next episode to be released.
However, despite this success, the controversial creative choices made in its final season have seen the series lose much of its prestige.
Controversial creative choices in its final season may have hurt the show’s overall reputation, but there is no doubt that it will go down as a classic anyway.
The Mandalorian – $100 million
The Mandalorian is often regarded as one of the best things to come out of the Star Wars universe in recent history.
The first season of the show cost $12.5 million per episode, totaling a whopping $100 million combined budget.
The second season was estimated to have a $15 million episode budget but this has yet to be confirmed.
It will be curious to see if the third season of the popular Star Wars show maintains the relative pricing of previous seasons or if it takes another cost-jump.
Marvel Shows – $150-225 million
It would be pointless to list all the recent Marvel superhero series on Disney+, as they all have equal costs per episode.
The cost per episode for the various Marvel series is $25 million so shows such as The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, and Moon Knight that ran for six episodes each cost $150 million.
The longer series, such as WandaVision which ran for nine episodes, cost closer to $225 million.
It will be curious to see whether Disney continues its consistent episode cost with future Marvel shows.
Stranger Things – $270 million
The fourth season of Stranger Things has been a great success for Netflix – even among those who had grown disenchanted with the series after its third season.
Given the show’s status as a Netflix staple, it may be unsurprising to learn that its nine episodes cost $30 million each for a total of $270 million.
The budget for the fifth and final season of the show has not yet been revealed – but they’re likely to be just as if not more expensive than Season Four.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power – $465 million
Amazon’s upcoming Lord of the Rings series, the Rings of Power, takes first place by a large margin – and it’s also the only show on this list that has yet to release.
Each of the eight episodes cost a jaw-dropping $58.1 million to produce for a total of $465 million – almost double the production cost of the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Given the predominately negative initial reception to the upcoming show’s trailers on YouTube and social media, it will be fascinating to see if Amazon is able to make a profit.
Season 2 of the show is already in production, and assuming it also has eight episodes and similar costs, Amazon will have spent almost $1 billion on The Rings of Power.
This is a staggering sum that far exceeds the production budget of even the most expensive movies ever made.
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