How Much Money Did Wandavision Make

Will Disney's $200m WandaVision gamble pay off?

It has been reported that Disney is spending $25 million on each of the nine episodes

The first Disney+ original series from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, WandaVision, premiered last month to mostly positive reviews. Fans seem pleased with the creative risk-taking however have also expressed concern that the show's overall pace is too slow — so much so that the show-runner felt she should to address this. The bar for WandaVision was set high since the project was first announced in 2019, and it was speculated that Disney was willing to throw somewhere in the region of an eye-watering $25 million at each of the nine episodes.

$25 milli o n per episode might sound like a lot of money for a TV series — and that's because it is. For comparison, episodes of The Crown are rumoured to have cost somewhere between $7 — $13 million — and although it lacks overt SFX, you get a sense of grandiose in the lavish production design. Episodes of The Mandalorian, another Disney+ original, are rumoured to have only cost $15 million. In 2018, the BBC claimed to have made 18 separate series', including Sherlock, Poldark, and Peaky Blinders, for under £100m. WandaVision certainly doesn't feel cheap, but you can't help but watch and wonder where the hefty budget has gone.

How much long term value is WandaVision adding to Disney+?

It's difficult to work out. For starters, the first three episodes are stylised like twentieth century sitcoms, a notoriously cheap form of TV to make, and most episodes run less than 30 minutes (apparently they're going to get longer as the series progresses). The only major expenses you can spot in the first few episodes are animated dishware flying around, and Vision — as he is kind of a CGI character depending on what he's doing. Nobody is suggesting the show could have been made on a shoestring budget, but the big question is whether this expensive gamble will pay off for Disney.

WandaVision will undoubtedly bring new subscribers to the streaming service, but it's unclear exactly how many — and more importantly how many will stick around after the series is finished. Disney+ has a 74% retention rate of subscribers after three months, but it's too soon to know how new WandaVision subscribers will compare. It's safe to assume, even the best-case scenario, ARPU won't cover costs.

Others speculate WandaVision will be more effective in adding long term value to Disney+. In recent years, we've seen TV shows like Friends, Seinfeld, The Office, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine being licensed to various streaming services for very high prices because of their popularity, even twenty years on. If Disney can produce a rewatchable, bingable hit, they'll add immense value to Disney+, even if they're not selling the streaming rights every year to the likes of Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime. The logic breaks down here though, as these timeless 'bingeables' tend to be sitcoms and they tend to be light-hearted, almost ambient watching. Plenty of viewers loved watching Narcos, Tiger King, The Queen's Gambit, and indeed WandaVision, but how many of them are really going to rewatch these titles to the same extent they might rewatch an episode of Friends before bed? You'd be challenged to find a limited series that has the same lifespan.

Final (and strongest) theory: this is this simply the toll Disney needs to pay in order to maintain a franchise as big as the MCU. We shouldn't be picking apart at the value of WandaVision as a single entity but rather as part of the wider universe. If the show ties in with the forthcoming Doctor Strange sequel (as it is rumoured to), it serves to hook viewers into a larger storyline, increasing the chances WandaVision watchers will pay to see the next Marvel release in the cinema… or they'll stay subscribed to Disney+ for the subsequent superhero series… or they'll buy some merchandise… or take a trip to DisneyWorld.

WandaVision's price tag may not make sense for any other show on any other streaming service, but if $25 million an episode is what is costs to keep millions of Marvel fans worldwide locked into the endless MCU universe for another year, then it is an investment Disney believes is ultimately worth it.