Disney likely axed The Acolyte because of soaring costs
Disney likely axed The Acolyte because of soaring costs
The Star Wars spinoff’s costs topped $230.1 million halfway through post-production.
cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/18424575
We had mixed feelings about the news in August that Disney+ had cancelled its Star Wars spinoff series The Acolyte after just one season. At the time, it seemed steadily declining ratings were to blame, particularly given the high production costs. More budgetary details have trickled out since then, indicating that the streaming series spent far more than previously reported, topping $230.1 million—roughly $28.7 million per episode—before post-production had even been completed. That's significantly more than the original $180 million reported budget, or about $22.5 million per episode.
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Writing at Forbes, Caroline Reid noted that The Acolyte was hampered from the start by a challenging post-pandemic financial environment at Disney. It was greenlit in 2021 along with many other quite costly series to boost subscriber numbers for Disney+, contributing to $11.4 billion losses in that division. Then Bob Iger returned as CEO and prioritized cutting costs. The Acolyte's heavy VFX needs and star casting (most notably Carrie Ann Moss and Squid Game's Lee Jung-jae) made it a pricey proposition, with ratings expectations to match. And apparently the show didn't generate as much merchandising revenue as expected.
As the folks at Slash Film pointed out, The Acolyte's bloated production costs aren't particularly eye-popping compared to, say, Prime Video's The Rings of Power, which costs a whopping $58 million per episode, or Marvel's Secret Invasion (about $35 million per episode). But it's pricey for a Star Wars series; The Mandalorian racked up around $15 million per episode, on par with Game of Thrones. So given the flagging ratings and lukewarm reviews, the higher costs proved to be "the final nail in the coffin" for the series in the eyes of Disney
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steadily declining ratings were to blame
Most shows see a drop off in ratings after the premier. This gets raised as the reason for cutting virtually every show, while ignoring that it happens to virtually every show.
As the folks at Slash Film pointed out, The Acolyte’s bloated production costs aren’t particularly eye-popping compared to, say, Prime Video’s The Rings of Power, which costs a whopping $58 million per episode, or Marvel’s Secret Invasion (about $35 million per episode). But it’s pricey for a Star Wars series; The Mandalorian racked up around $15 million per episode, on par with Game of Thrones.
Its crazy that you can go on YouTube and find fan-content made on the order of tens-of-thousands of dollars which get millions of views. Then Disney gets ahold of a franchise and suddenly its hemorrhaging $28M per episode.
But when you get under the hood of the show, what you end up finding is
$49m on pre-production.
$131m remaining. assume 30% for marketing, or $39m - ads, toys, promos, etc.
$92m for 8 episodes.
A ton of the budget is purely going to promotion of a show/franchise that should do a good job of promoting itself. And the ROI is a bitch, because what you're really asking is how many subscriptions to Disney+ you'd have lost if you hadn't made this show. Compared to film box office revenues, this seems increasingly difficult to justify.
One reason why you're seeing content on services like Netflix and (RIP HBO) Max crumble to dust, while schlock low-budget Reality TV, vintage movies/series, and anime fill up their catalogues. I imagine Disney is headed in the same direction.