Confirming the rumors, it is revealed that The Acolyte budget is well north of $200 million.
You will have noticed in my articles (here, here, here) that I also said the budget was well over $200 million, and I believe it was YouTuber Doomcock who first said so.
Now we have confirmation via a financial document from Disney via the UK.
Thanks to That Park Place, it is revealed The Acolyte budget is actually around $230 million — and possibly higher.
The site found a tax document filed by the Walt Disney Company’s UK branch revealing that Disney and Lucasfilm spent 172 million GBP on The Acolyte, which converts to $230,815,400 in U.S. dollars.
As pointed out, the document lists what was spent before September 24, 2023, and since The Acolyte was released June 4, 2024, it’s likely the budget is even higher. Reportedly, the show went through major rewrites and reshoots as it took four years to make.
It’s also said Lesle Headland told Vanity Fair the budget was $180 million, which the NY Times also said when they published an article on May 29, 2024, so we see there may have been a bit of ‘Pinocchio’ going on.
That $230M also translates to a whopping $28.75 million per episode, and thanks to a Redditor, it’s known The Acolyte is Disney’s most-expensive per minute watched Star Wars series due to such low viewership (even more with the $230M price tag).
The Acolyte sports the lowest viewership ratings for a Star Wars show on Disney+ and also holds the record for the least-watched Star Wars season finale.
The trades officially announced The Acolyte was canceled and a Season 2 would not be happening a month after the first season ended.
Series star Amandla Stenberg released an odd rage-twerking video during the season aimed at fans, and once the show got canceled, blamed fans for the cancellation.
The Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score also dropped to a low of 13% at one point and presently sits at 18%.
Disney CEO Bob Iger has said Disney is pulling back on Star Wars, and a recent rumor says Lucasfilm will only be releasing one Star Wars series a year on Disney+.