Netflix is upping the ante for Stranger Things season 4 with an astronomical budget.
As per a report by The Washington Journal, Netflix has dished out a staggering $30 million per episode, and at nine episodes that number comes to a whopping $270 million. This shows how much faith the streaming platform is putting into the new season of the series, and could indicate an even more visually impactful season.
To put this number in perspective, Game of Thrones reached $15 million per episode by the eighth and final season. It set the standard for movie quality TV programming, but it is evident that other shows are catching up.
Amazon Prime Video’s upcoming Lord of the Rings: The Power of the Rings will have a reported budget of $1 billion for its five seasons, so we’ll have to see what the final number will be for Stranger Things once its final season wraps.
While Stranger Things is one of Netflix’s strongest performers, there is also the fact the streaming service is currently in troubled waters with 200,000 subscribers leaving in Q1 and 2 million more expected to leave in the next quarter. It remains to be seen how the once reigning streaming platform will attempt to curb this dip in the number of its subscribers and turn things around.
The upcoming season will see David Harbour’s Jim Hopper imprisoned in Russia and striving to escape, while a new threat rears its head in Hawkins, bringing the initially separated gang back together as they join forces to battle yet more seemingly unbeatable supernatural entities.
Stranger Things season 4, Part 1 premieres on Netflix on May 27.