Summary
Arcanehas made headlines for many reasons in 2024 as the series reached its conclusion in Season 2. One piece of news that turned heads wasArcane’salleged record-breaking budget, but one of Riot Games’ co-founders has since clarified this number.
Riot Games is best known for creating online multiplayer gamesLeague of LegendsandValorant.Arcaneis the company’s first official foray into television and the series adapts the stories of several of its champions fromLeague of Legends. The Netflix series is a collaboration between Riot and French animation studio Fortiche, who worked for almost a decade on the project to establish a unique and stunning animated style to convey its story. Both ofArcane’sseasons debuted to a positive reception, with many already eager for more projects from Riot’s expandingLeague of Legendsuniverse.
Arcane’s Budget Was Less Than Initially Reported
In November a report from Variety revealedthe budget forArcane’stwo seasonsto be 250 million dollars, which made it by far the most expensive animated TV series of all time. However, it appears that the number was not entirely accurate. Riot Games co-founder Marc Merrill toldio9 in an interviewthat the number is inaccurate as it includes expenses for marketing. Merill said the number in actuality was “significantly less” than $250 million, further clarifying it was around 60-70% of that estimate.
“First of all, the $250 million headline is not even accurate because that includes marketing expenses. The actual creation budget is significantly less than that. One of the fascinating things is that once a meme sets into people’s heads, showing up with facts counter to that narrative, it’s sometimes hard to dislodge a perspective, which is just fascinating to observe. It wasn’t quite $250 [million]. It was significantly less than that…”
“…I’ll give you a ballpark range. It’s somewhere between 60 to 75% of that estimate.”
This number still marks a high budget forArcane, with the estimate putting it in the $150-200 million range. However, spread across two seasons and almost ten years of work, it’s hardly a surprising amount of money to spend.Arcaneis also Riot’s first television adaptation and was inherently a risk for the company. It was one that ultimately paid off withArcanewinning the praise of critics, the hearts of fans, and quite a few awards.“Seeing the player response and the broader fan response for Arcane has just been rewarding, gratifying, and validating for all the hard work writers have put in for many years,”Merill added in the interview.
What Are Riot’s Plans After Arcane?
As for what’s next fromArcane, despite the series ending after two seasons Riot has been clear about its plans to producemore stories from within the same world.Arcane’sco-creator Christian Linke teased that some of the stories they’re exploring may take audiences to theLeague of Legendsregionsof Noxus, Demacia, and Ionia, which will no doubt bring a wealth of new characters to attach to. Now that Arcane has established a working formula, Riot will likely have no qualms about spending a similar budget to bring more of its stories to life.
All ofArcaneis streaming on Netflix.
Arcane
Arcane is an animated series developed by Alex Yee and Christian Linke that follows a the story of Piltover and Zaun, two pivotal locations in the League of Legends universe. The first season follows the stories of Jynx and Vi, as well as Jayce and Viktor.
