The massive budget of 1923 is detailed by Taylor Sheridan, the creator of the Yellowstone prequel. The latest entry in the expanding Yellowstone universe features screen icons Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren, serving as a follow-up to 1883. It centers around the Dutton family during the titular year of 1923, which was a time of historical events that included Western Expansion, Prohibition, and the Great Depression. Along with Mirren and Ford, the Paramount+ show also stars Brandon Sklenar, Julia Schlaepfer, Jerome Flynn, Darren Mann, Brian Geraghty, and Elsa Dutton actor Isabel May as the Narrator.
In an interview with Deadline, Sheridan was asked about the budget for 1883, which was affected by a quick production schedule to boost Paramount+’s launch. Despite this, Sheridan said 1923 was actually more costly, offering a comparison to Game of Thrones. Read Sheridan’s comments regarding the show’s budget below:
I would argue that 1883 was the most expensive first season of a TV show ever made. This was much more expensive. Much more expensive. I don’t know what the Game of Thrones budgets were, but I don’t know how they could have been more than this…You saw six thousand sheep, three thousand cattle, and as this show keeps going, you’re in Africa. All real. You know how hard it is to move a crew around in Africa in 2022 with Covid, and all the rules and all the politics?…So, that’s the thing about Paramount that’s been so great for me. They’re so malleable to the storyteller, or at least to me as the storyteller. They will add episodes because I need it to tell the story. You think about when you talk about a show that’s costing $22 million an episode and you just asked for eight more episodes, I didn’t do very good in math in school, but I can multiply eight and three and add a bunch of zeroes and realize I just asked for 150 million dollars.
What Has Made The Yellowstone Franchise Such A Hit?
It’s worth noting that the budget for Game of Thrones season 1 was reported to be around 6 million per episode. For the whole season, that adds up to $60 million. Following the 1923 comparison that Sheridan made, it’s clear to see how the much-discussed prequel show ends up being significantly more expensive. It leads to the question of why the wider Yellowstone world has been such a formidable hit and why its spinoffs are being used as a key selling point for rebranded streaming services.
There are, of course, many reasons why a show resonates with audiences. But one big factor for the Yellowstone franchise is that it’s an example of a certain genre done well. It’s a Western, which has always had an audience, but it’s updated and tweaked as necessary. It adjusts, depending on the spinoff and the setting depicted, and it helps that the Yellowstone universe on the whole boasts stars on the level of Ford, Mirren, and Kevin Costner.
It fills a void, in other words, for viewers who want to see the twists and intrigue they expect in a lot of dramas but in a Western setting with all the trappings and tropes that implies. 1923 debuted to strong critical reception. The show broke the previous record of Paramount+, delivering the streaming service’s most-watched premiere ever in the U.S., besting the previous number by almost 80 percent in the process. It also garnered 7.4 million total viewers across different platforms, confirming that the audience appetite for Sheridan’s stories remains strong.
