Disney Spent More On ‘Andor’ Than Any Of Its ‘Star Wars’ Movies

The streaming series ‘Endor’ cost Disney more than any of its ‘Star Wars’ movies.

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Disney has today revealed that it has spent $60.5 million (£47.9 million) star wars streaming series internal management and The show’s total cost in 2024, ahead of the start of its second season in April this year, was $705.5 million (£552.7 million), which was within budget but still far more than has been spent on any film in the sci-fi saga.

Disney has had mixed results star wars Shows and Movies, as it purchased the series’ creator, Lucasfilm, for $4 billion in 2012. all stars aligned for this power awakensThe first in a trilogy of sequels to Disney’s original films, which began in 1977.

power awakens Grossed $2.1 billion and earned an impressive audience score of 84% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. However, its 2017 follow-up, The Last JediOnly a 41% rating was given and although the audience score reached 86% rise of skywalkerThe final film of the trilogy, it grossed only $1.1 billion at the box office.

star wars Mouse hasn’t been seen on the silver screen since and has instead focused on streaming shows for their Disney+ platform, but they too experienced a disturbance in the force.

The first in the series was in 2019 The Mandalorian Which follows the armor-clad bounty hunter of the same name tasked with protecting a pointy-eared green alien named Grogu. The lovable creatures took the world by storm and the first season received a 93% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The sequel was inevitable and maintained the high standards of the original with a 91% audience score. However, it dropped to just 51% in the third season in 2023 and the problems didn’t stop there. Disney released next year retainer It was famously attacked for its emphasis on diversity and ended with an audience score of only 19% on Rotten Tomatoes.

disney’s only star wars Franchises that have managed to maintain traction among audiences across multiple seasons internal management and The film stars Mexican actor Diego Luna as the eponymous spy working for the heroic rebels as they take on the might of the Empire, led by supervillain Darth Vader. Set five years before the hugely successful original star wars Trilogy, internal management and feels equally grounded due to the heavy use of practical effects and physical sets rather than digital backgrounds that are common on other star wars As described in this report, productions.

The show earned an 88% Rotten Tomatoes rating from viewers for its first season, which debuted in 2022, and was a winner. Its successor took three years to drop as filming for season two was heavily delayed due to a writers’ and actors’ strike in 2023. It was worth the wait as season two debuted in April this year with an 89% viewership score. It didn’t come cheap.

The cost of making streaming shows is usually a well-kept secret because studios add them all up into their expenses and don’t disclose how much they spent on each. The exceptions are shows made in the United Kingdom and internal management and Was one of them.

Studios filming in the UK receive cash reimbursements of up to 25.5% of the money spent in the country. Till last year this came in the form of tax credit but now the cash is counted as revenue. The main condition for achieving this is that at least 10% of the main cost of production must be spent in the UK and to demonstrate this to the authorities, studios set up separate companies to produce each of their shows. They highlight expenses because companies are obliged to file legally binding financial statements that detail everything from the total cost of production and reimbursement levels to the number of employees, salaries, and even social security payments to employees. To get to the bottom of this, some detective work has to be done.

Companies have code names so that they do not attract the attention of fans when applying for permits to film on location. internal management and The Disney subsidiary was created by E&E Industries (UK), which was originally established in October 2018 to work on a feature film about the iconic Disney character. star wars Character Obi-Wan Kenobi. Disney reconsiders after the failure of its based film star wars The legendary Han Solo which was released earlier that year. This report revealed that it lost $103.3 million at the box office and as a result, Obi-Wan Kenobi Became a Disney+ show. Filming was scheduled to begin in summer 2020 but did not happen.

Production was halted in mid-January 2020 when Disney reportedly became concerned that the story was too similar. The Mandalorian Because it had Kenobi protecting a young Luke Skywalker, whose original role was famously played by Mark Hamill star wars Movies.

This delay proved to be a blessing as the pandemic soon sent the world into lockdown to give time Obi-Wan Kenobi The script will be reworked. By May 2021, the crew assembled in Los Angeles and filming finally began.

Filings for E&E Industries reveal that a total of $7.2 million (£5.6 million) had been spent as of October 31, 2019, shortly before pre-production. Obi-Wan Kenobi Was stopped. It’s possible that more was spent on the show in the intervening time, but the bulk of the cost should be shown in the 2019 filing.

E&E Industries was not disappointed then Obi-Wan Kenobi Was stopped. Instead, it became the production company for internal management and And both seasons of the show were shot at the historic Pinewood Studios outside London. It was filmed on location across the UK, with a futuristic subway station in London doubling for the Imperial Security Bureau on the alien planet of Coruscant, while the resort planet Niamos was actually a seaside town in the north of England.

But in an interview comicbookmovie, of endor Special effects supervisor Neal Scanlan reported that approximately six weeks of pre-production had been done internal management and When the UK went into lockdown at the end of March 2020.

Filming was repeatedly delayed due to the pandemic and E&E Industries was granted a $1.6 million (£1.2 million) grant by the UK government, along with $2 million (£1.5 million) from an insurance claim.

Like all UK companies, E&E Industries releases its filings in stages, well after the relevant period. This process begins during pre-production and continues long after the premiere to give the production team time to ensure all bills have been paid. This explains why the company released its financial statements today, November 22, 2024, which show that a total of $705.5 million had been spent on both seasons of the show by then. The second season began just five months after the date of the financial statements, so costs are likely to increase in a later set of filings next year.

Excluding expenses of $7.2 million Obi-Wan Kenobi Puts the total cost of two sessions of internal management and At approximately $698.3 million and financial statements show that they were both “within production budget”. It doesn’t stop here.

E&E Industries also received reimbursements and tax credits totaling $142.3 million (£111.5 million), increasing Disney’s net expenses internal management and That dropped to $552.4 million after deducting insurance payments and payments from pandemic grants. One of the largest single expenses shown in the financial statements was $85.5 million (£66.9 million) paid to staff, the highest wage bill for any shows and films made by Disney in the UK over the past 15 years.

staff number current internal management and The monthly average reached 501 people in 2023, which does not include freelancers, contractors and temporary workers as they are not listed as employees in UK companies’ books, even though they often represent the majority of the crew on film shoots.

Last year Disney announced that since 2019 it had spent $4.8 billion (£3.5 billion) on producing 41 shows and 29 feature films in the UK, supporting more than 32,000 jobs. This is a good portion of the total.

The latest figures from the British Film Institute (BFI) show that in 2019 alone, film production created a total of 37,685 jobs in London and 7,775 jobs in the rest of the UK. The BFI’s triennial Screen Business Report states that when the wider impacts of the film content value chain are taken into account, 49,845 jobs were created in London in 2019 and 19,085 in the rest of the UK.

In February the BFI released its latest annual data, which revealed that foreign studios accounted for 87% of the $2.6 billion (£2.1 billion) spent on making films in the UK in 2024. It not only keeps people in jobs, but also spends on services like security, equipment rental, transportation and catering. It remains to be seen how long this glow will remain intact.

In May President Trump shocked Hollywood by announcing that a 100% tariff would be imposed on films entering the United States produced in “foreign lands.” This was an attempt to bring film production back to America and although not yet implemented, it has not been forgotten.

In late September Trump wrote on social media that “to solve this long-standing, never-ending problem, I will impose a 100% tariff on any and all films made outside the United States.” If he doesn’t follow through on this threat, he may have to roll out the red carpet for Hollywood studios to come back home by offering them even more attractive incentives than in the UK.