The archive on the Disney+ streaming platform spans more that 13,000 shows on in 39 languages and it didn’t come cheap. In late 2017, Disney’s chief executive Bob Iger announced a $71 billion deal to buy 21st Century Fox giving it control of streaming service Hulu and adult-focused content such as The Simpsons and Family Guy. This diversified Disney’s content making it appeal to a wider audience of potential streaming subscribers.

The more minutes of content Disney can offer, the more ads it can fit in and the more content there is to tempt subscribers. Andor isn’t just a cost-effective way to do this with Star Wars, it’s the cheapest way.

As the table above shows, when the cost of the seven Disney Star Wars shows and movies made in the U.K. is divided by the run time of the production, Andor comes out the cheapest. Its first season lasted for a whopping 547 minutes across 12 episodes and although the total run time of its second season hasn’t yet come to light, it is set to span 12 episodes again so a similar length can be expected. At just $0.6 million per minute it delivers tremendous value for money which is precisely what Disney+ needs.

At the other end of the spectrum is 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens which ran for just 138 minutes but cost a massive $641.3 million, making it the most expensive movie of all time as this report revealed.

Of course cost effectiveness and quality are two very different things. Andor’s first season excelled at the latter as its audience score of 87% gave it a higher rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes than any of Disney’s other Star Wars streaming shows. Indeed, its score is even higher than any of Disney’s Star Wars movies with the exception of 2016 spinoff film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story which is set immediately after the second season of Andor. It has big boots to fill and although no expense has been spared, it isn’t perhaps as big a risk as it may seem.

  • CitizenKong@lemmy.world
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    28 days ago

    And Andor also opted for massive sets instead of doing almost everything in the Volume like Obi Wan.

    • ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝OPA
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      27 days ago

      And when they weren’t using the massive set they built, they used a lot of locations around the UK. It helped give it a much more… solid feel.