Game of Thrones Final Season Rumored to Have Actually Cost $240 Million

The final season of Game of Thrones may have cost a lot more than first reported. X-Men: First Class and Thor screenwriter Zack Stentz was on this week’s Fatman Beyond podcast with Kevin Smith and Marc Bernardin and while recording, the scribe revealed he’d heard from a reputable source that HBO’s swan song for the event series cost upwards of $240 million.

“I heard from a fairly reliable source how much the last season of Game of Thrones cost and it was a lot more than reported,” Stentz says. “What I heard it was something like $240 million for six episodes. It’s like ‘Oh my God, that’s so much!’ but that’s less than Justice League. Which piece of entertainment did more for Warner Brothers coffers in the last two years: Justice League or the last season of Game of Thrones? Boom, Game of Thrones…better investment.”

Previous reports suggested that each episode for Game of Thrones Season Eight cost at least $15m each to make. If Stentz’s source is correct, that’d mean the season cost over double what was initially reported. Whatever the case, Game of Thrones showrunners Dan Weiss and David Benioff previously revealed the premium cable network was willing to throw whatever money they needed into the project to wrap it up properly

“Yes. To their credit, they put their money where their mouths are — literally stuffed their mouth full of million-dollar bills which don’t exist anymore,” Weiss said regarding previous comments that they had considered doing the final season as movies. “They said, ‘We’ll give you the resources to make this what it needs to be, and if what it needs to be is a summer tentpole-size spectacle in places, then that’s what it will be.’”

“HBO would have been happy for the show to keep going, to have more episodes in the final season,” Benioff said. “We always believed it was about 73 hours, and it will be roughly that. As much as they wanted more, they understood that this is where the story ends.”

Were you a fan of the show’s last season? Why or why not? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

All eight seasons of Game of Thrones are now streaming on HBO Go, HBO Now, through the HBO channel on Amazon Prime, or various other platforms.