One thing that has defined Marvel Studios’ attempts with TV has been their budgets – they’re expensive.
“Loki,” “Moon Knight,” “Hawkeye,” “Ms. Marvel,” “The Falcon and The Winter Soldier” all cost around $140-150 million each across their six episode runs, while “WandaVision” and “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” came in around $225 million total (they had longer episode runs).
The most expensive per episode series seems to be “Secret Invasion,” the infamous flop officially cost $212 million for just six episodes, whereas the cheapest to date has been “Echo” which reportedly came in at just $40 million for its five-episode run in total and is an outlier compared to the rest.
Now, THR reports that the currently airing “Agatha All Along” has taken the title of being Marvel Studios’ “least expensive” Disney+ TV series to date, adding it is “significantly” cheaper.
They add that “Marvel Television has recalibrated its shows and that may now be paying off.” The piece likely didn’t take “Echo” into account in that ‘significant’ comparison.
Another key difference is length with “Agatha All Along” clocking in at nine episodes compared to “Echo” which was just five, meaning that the overall season could have a budget just under $72 million and still be cheaper than “Echo” on a per episode basis.
To put the numbers in comparison outside of the Disney+ service, the first season of Netflix’s “Daredevil” came in at a budget of $56 million for 13 episodes.
The firstepisode of “Agatha All Along” reportedly garnered 9.3 million views on Disney+ in its first week, a number considered strong for a show with no A-list actors or a major character in Marvel lore to help sell it.