Making movies and TV isn’t cheap. I did an interview with Nate Shepka the other day, and he said his budgets are around £200,000 per movie. Making something in Hollywood is different though. For instance, let’s look at the new season of Severance.
According to Bloomberg, Severance Season 2 cost $200,000,000 to make! That is $20,000,000 per episode.
As someone said on Twitter:
“How does Severance Season 2 cost so much? It’s literally set in an enclosed office, with some outside shots.”
It’s a good point. I get that making a TV show is complex. You must schedule the actors, get the sets ready, the lighting, cameras etc. Some budgets go toward things like CGI, but, as far as I’m aware, there isn’t much CGI in Severance.
The director of one episode, Jessica Lee Gagne, confirmed that one of the biggest shots of the show had no CGI in it. It was all done with cables and pullies and was a very technical shot, see below.
the fact that none of this was cgi and all real is insane. jessica lee gagne is so talented pic.twitter.com/82YrgiFY4m
— delaney (@danversguardian) February 28, 2025
No offence to the actors, but I can’t see much of the money going to them. It’s Adam Scott, not a clone of Marlon Brando! I like Scott, he’s a fine actor, but he can’t be charging that much for being in the series.
Apple produced Severance and they are trying to get any many new subscribers as possible. I’m guessing they are going to need a lot to recoup some of the $200,000,000 for Severance. I wonder how much they will budget for season 3?