It's no secret that Disney tends to shell out the really, really big bucks when it makes Star Wars films, with budgets that routinely exceed $200 million and have peaked with the hugely expensive Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker, which is said to have clocked as much as $593 million in total, with around $275 million dedicated to production alone.
This trend might naturally have you assuming that The Mandalorian & Grogu is a costly affair, and while it isn't at all a cheap film, the latest information from the California Film Committee (thanks, Collider) has suggested that it's actually the cheapest Star Wars film in two decades.
The data states that the production budget for The Mandalorian & Grogu topped out at $166.4 million, which is well below all of the Star Wars films that have been made in the 20 years since Revenge of the Sith landed in 2005. In fact, the 'prequels' weren't even that much cheaper than Mando's big screen effort, with these clocking in at $113-115 million.
It should be said that this data does seem to only include production costs and not attached marketing and such too, as we do know, from Disney itself, that The Rise of Skywalker's complete costs almost broke $600 million and far exceeded the $275 production cost mentioned in this latest data.
So perhaps the more reserved (by Star Wars' standards) budget is good news for The Mandalorian and Grogu and shows that it doesn't need to reach the same astronomical highs as those before it to be considered a hit.
Will you be checking it out in cinemas?
