Key Takeaways
- Arcane is reportedly the most expenisve animated show ever created, with a budget of $250 million devoted to production and promotion.
- In a new interview, the showrunners of Arcane defended the show’s reported high budget, owing to the use of high quality talent.
- While they did not outright confirm those reports, the showrunners did point to a need for a high budget to execute their vision.
It’s no secret that television and movies, much like video games, have seen increased costs in production. However, it still came as a shock to many that Netflix’s Arcane is reportedly the most expensive animated show ever created.
Indeed, according to reporting from entertainment website Variety, Arcane has run Riot Games a reported $250 million. Of that figure, $80 million was devoted to Season 1, with an additional $100 million put into Season 2. That’s not to mention the $60 million dished out for promotional purposes. In other words, the League of Legends animated spin-off isn’t cheap.
Now, several days following the initial report, Arcane’s showrunners are speaking out in defense of the show’s big budget.
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Quality Has A Cost Attached To It
In an interview with GamesRadar, showrunner Christian Linke affirmed that the reported $250 million budget isn’t correct, though he didn’t clarify just how much the show truly has run.
“First of all, the number is not exactly right,” Linke said. “That number does include marketing costs associated with the release, which is not part of the budget of Arcane.” Still, it’s safe to assume that, at least part of the $250 million, specifically the production aspects, is at least somewhat in the ballpark.
Regardless, Linke and his colleagues were quick to defend their work on Arcane. “Arcane is a really expensive animated series — which was the point,” he added. “Our dream was to create an animated series that has the fidelity of what you see in animated movies.”
Alex Lee, another showrunner, also described the cost of hiring incredible talent, like voice actors and artists, to help bring the show to life. “You have voice actors, where we really tried to find great talent,” Lee said. “You have artists who we wanted to have time to really be able to put in their touches and to have so many different disciplines in this really be able to do their best and show what they could do. In a lot of ways, the money is just a reflection of the amount of effort that was put into this.”
Given how popular and well-received Arcane has been, it seems like the budget has largely paid off. Still, it is worth discussing how the show managed to cost more than some well-recognized animated projects. And it’s certainly worth wondering just how much the final cost would’ve been had the show gone to its original intended length.
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