Star Wars Finally Reveals Exactly How Much The Acolyte Cost to Make, Yikes

Though they haven't been to everyone's tastes throughout, it's difficult to argue that Disney hasn't backed the Star Wars franchise monetarily, even if many don't think that money is being put to particularly good use.

For every genuinely brilliant show or film, with Andor being the most obvious example, there is another that entirely fails to live up to expectations, whether through poor story direction or tenuous links to the existing lore.

The Acolyte proved to be one of those divisive shows, particularly in certain corners of the internet, and after a poor reception, plans for a second season were scrapped just a month after the first went live.

One thing that most folks agreed that it did have going for it was that it looked pretty good. The costumes and sets were all clearly well done, and it turns out that was likely due to a pretty enormous outlay on the part of Disney.

How much did The Acolyte cost to make?

It turns out that the feedback of the Star Wars community may not have been the kicker when it came to deciding whether to go ahead with another season of The Acolyte.

As first reported by Forbes, the show absolutely blasted past its intended budget once the cameras started rolling, hitting a staggering final cost of $207.8 million. That number was filed in September 2023, and the show was only part way through post-production at that point.

In the intervening, an additional $24.2 million was spent in the eight months between September 2023 and The Acolyte's release, with a few extraneous cost in the four months after that.

It is important to note that The Acolyte was made in the UK, and there are certain schemes that will have allowed Disney to get some of that money back.

Studios filming in the UK can get a reimbursement of up to 25.5% on their total outlay, as long as 10% of the core costs are spent in that country.

All told, the show came in at an exceptionally expensive $230.8 million dollars, which comes to $256.7 million in today's terms.

That pales in comparison to the sums spent on the two series of the aforementioned Andor, which clocked in at $645 million, but the near-universal critical and fan reception that show received may have made those costs considerably easier for the executives at Disney to swallow without complaint.