In contrast to similarly budgeted programs, where the “budget” often just refers to the production expenses, this takes marketing into consideration.
Variety said that it was still “by far the most expensive animated series ever on streaming or linear TV” in spite of this. Riot Games co-founder Marc Merrill said,
“We’re more than comfortable with the spend it took to deliver a show that was worthy of our players’ time,” in response to the budget that the Hollywood outlet had published.
Riot has the money to devote entirely to Arcane as its only project, since the video game generates $3 billion in sales annually.
“Sources familiar with details of the production pegged the cost of the first nine 40-minute episodes at north of $80 million;
The second batch of nine about to air has a price tag approaching $100 million,” Variety said in its story.
