ARCANE Is the Most Expensive Animated Series Ever Made
As League of Legends producer Riot Games and French animation studio, Fortiche are about to premiere Arcane Season 2 on Netflix, some new information has been shared about the series that is very interesting.
It turns out that Arcane is the most expensive animated show ever made! It cost $250 million to produce 18 episodes, which is a lot of freakin’ money!
The thing is, you can see all of that money on the screen. You can see it in the top-notch riveting storytelling, you can see it in the stunningly awesome visuals. There is a problem with spending that much money on a series like this, though.
According to a report from Variety, Riot Games is struggling to find its path in the entertainment industry because it spent so much money getting Arcane out the door. They just have a lack of experience navigating the industry.
Because of that, the company reportedly spent $60 million on the marketing for Arcane‘s first season, which is a price tag that far exceeds the norm for a show not being distributed by its studio.
The report also reveals that Arcane was initially planned at a five-season show, but the series will be coming to an end after only two. So, while they have said two seasons was all they needed to tell the complete story they wanted to tell, we now know the real reason why the series was cut short!
A source close to the show’s production revealed that the estimated costs for Arcane‘s first nine episodes are north of $80 million. They also say that Arcane‘s similarly-sized second season cost around $100 million.
On top of that, Riot paid for Arcane‘s marketing out of its own pocket, and spent more than Netflix did promoting the show.
Regardless of all that, Riot co-founder and chief product officer Marc Merrill said that Riot has a commitment to producing high-quality film and TV but acknowledged a learning curve.
“Our ambitions in entertainment haven’t changed. We were never intending to operate like a traditional studio with traditional timelines.
“What did change as we learned more was our expectations of ourselves: We realized that getting it right takes a lot more time than we’d originally expected, and so we recalibrated our development, output goals and teams with that in mind.”
When it comes to the $250 million price tag, Merrill said: “We’re more than comfortable with the spend it took to deliver a show that was worthy of our players’ time.”
Riot Games still has projects in development such as a live-action limited series and a feature animation project, and they are developing different ideas for Arcane spinoff shows. But, the company has yet to put any of them into production.
In the end, Riot Games has proven that can create awesome content and as they continue to learn and grow, I’m looking forward to seeing the other projects that they create.