It seems like Agatha All Along has actually been a bit of a hit for Marvel. The show is said to have raked in around 9.3 million views during its first week, which is only a couple of million behind Star Wars: The Acolyte, which had a reported budget of around $180 million.
This tighter budget is, according to Marvel Studios head of streaming, television, and animation, Brad Winderbaum, by design, as in an interview with Variety he states the following:
“I can tell you it’s our least expensive show, and I think that was by design. We are looking to make these shows for a responsible cost. Frankly, it gives us a little bit more freedom creatively when we can bring them in at a reasonable budget. Like [“Agatha All Along”], for example, the show has minimal CG, way less than we’ve ever done before. It’s mostly practical effects, and I think you can feel it in the show.”
The exact budget has not been revealed, but it was previously thought that Echo was the cheapest Marvel series to develop to date, at a budget of around $40 million for five episodes of television. Agatha All Along will run for nine episodes, so it’s unclear if Winderbaum’s comments mean that the series will have a lower per-episode cost or if Agatha’s total budget is somehow $40 million or less, meaning each episode would have a cost of around $5 million.
Winderbaum adds, “I think it’s about how you use the effects, as opposed to the scale of the effects. And we’re responding to our own recent history here, and how effective effects really are in increasing the value of a story.”
Have you been watching Agatha All Along and what are your thoughts on the series so far?