Netflix is known for throwing a lot of money at making some of its biggest TV shows look better than the competition, and series don’t come much bigger than their fantasy sci-fi monster, Stranger Things. With the show now about to unleash hell on Hawkins one last time – literally – new reports have suggested that the streamer has potentially turned the fifth and final season into one of the most expensive ever.
Season 4 of Stranger Things came with an expanded budget due to several of its episodes running to feature-length – the season finale alone was longer than most Hollywood blockbusters. Although Season 5 will scale back on the monstrous scope of its predecessor, it looks like that hasn’t stopped the cost of the show soaring towards the $500 million mark if new rumors are to be believed. At this point, there is no reason to doubt that Netflix is throwing in everything they have to make the flagship show’s swan song another record-breaker.
According to Puck, Netflix has allocated up to $60 million per episode to the series, which, across eight episodes, would bring the cost to around $480 million at top end. Although these figures are always very vague and littered with the possibility of being incorrect, the old term of “there’s no smoke without fire” is always very much in play when it comes to the cost of movies and TV shows. Amazon’s Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is expected to cost $1 billion across its planned five seasons, and other shows such as Wednesday have seen their budgets soar. With the line between TV and cinematic experience being forever blurred, it is hard to fully disbelieve any budget reports, no matter how wild they seem.
‘Stranger Things’ Ends in Three Parts
While Stranger Things Season 5 is not going to be the marathon event that Season 4 delivered in 2022, it is going to feel like it is thanks to its unique (and annoying to many) release strategy. Netflix, the original pioneer of the “binge” model of release, is the one streamer that has shown great reluctance in releasing TV shows on a weekly basis like many other platforms.
Instead, they have started releasing new seasons in two parts, meaning they retain their binge model in the main, but also allow viewers to catch up with the first episodes of a season before the conclusion is released, usually a month later. Stranger Things Season 5 will still not be released in weekly installments, but is coming in three parts that will see four episodes drop on November 26, three on December 25, and the finale on December 31.
There has been a mixed reaction to the way the show is rounding out its story. In a time when spoilers hit the internet within hours of a show’s release, there are many who have welcomed that they will at least have time to catch the first seven episodes before the season finale is released as a standalone event. Others have questioned why Netflix have not just released the series in weekly episodes, which would take roughly the same time to reach their conclusion but allow people the chance to see each episode before too many spoilers for the subsequent ones are revealed.
Stranger Things’ conclusion is obviously one of the biggest projects for Netflix. The series has been one of their biggest and most consistent hits, and there are many people now desperate to find out how the story ends. With some big character deaths expected and plenty of twists and turns promised, avoiding spoilers is going to be a tricky task, and one that could have been avoided if Netflix would just give in and fully adopt a weekly release strategy like almost everyone else.
- Release Date
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2016 – 2025
- Network
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Netflix
- Writers
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Kate Trefry, Jessie Nickson-Lopez, Jessica Mecklenburg, Alison Tatlock
