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ENTERTAINMENT

Netflix spent $30m per episode on “Stranger Things” season 4

By Ninian Carter

April 22, 2022 - With Netflix under the spotlight amid fears of falling subscribers and revenue, its tentpole smash hit series “Stranger Things” is about to return for a fourth season, but at an eye-watering cost.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Netflix has spent $30 million on each episode of the fourth season of “Stranger Things”. That’s double what HBO paid for each episode of the final series of “Game of Thrones” in 2019.

The series consists of a total of nine episodes, the first tranche dropping on May 27 and then, five weeks later on July 1, the second volume will arrive. It’s unclear quite why Netflix has chosen this unusual approach to releasing season 4, which is not the conclusion of the American science fiction horror drama – a final season 5 is in the works.

“Stranger Things” is far and away Netflix’s most popular original show, so it’s understandable why the streaming giant would throw money at it. However, $30m per episode is quite a rise on the $10m an episode it spent on season 3. Such spending is now under more scrutiny than ever after it recently announced falling subscriber numbers, and inevitably, revenue.

Incredulously though, $30m an episode almost pales into insignificance when compared to Amazon’s budget for its upcoming show, “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”. The tech giant has forked out an astonishing $462m for season one – a whopping $58m per episode.

Sources
PUBLISHED: 22/04/2022; STORY: Graphic News
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