According to Forbes, Disney spent $60.5 million on the second season of Star Wars series Andor in 2024, bringing the show’s total cost to $705.5 million across both seasons. This staggering amount was within budget but exceeds the spending on any Star Wars movie in the franchise’s history. The production company E&E Industries (UK) revealed these numbers through mandatory financial filings required for UK productions. Andor has maintained impressive audience scores of 88% and 89% on Rotten Tomatoes for its two seasons, standing out amid Disney’s mixed Star Wars results. The filings also show Disney received $142.3 million in UK reimbursements and tax credits, bringing the net spending down to $552.4 million.
The UK production advantage
Here’s the thing about streaming budgets – they’re usually top secret. Studios lump everything together and don’t itemize. But productions in the UK are different because studios have to set up separate companies and file detailed financial statements to qualify for that sweet 25.5% reimbursement on money spent in the country. That’s how we know Andor cost more than The Force Awakens or any other Star Wars film.
And get this – the $85.5 million paid to staff was the highest wage bill for any Disney production in the UK over the past 15 years. The production peaked at 501 monthly employees in 2023, and that doesn’t even include all the freelancers and contractors who make up most film crews. When you’re building practical sets instead of relying on digital backdrops, you need skilled people – and they don’t come cheap.
From Obi-Wan to Andor
The production company E&E Industries has an interesting backstory. It was originally founded in October 2018 to work on an Obi-Wan Kenobi feature film. But after the Han Solo movie lost $103.3 million that same year, Disney got cold feet about another standalone film. According to The Hollywood Reporter, production was put on hold in January 2020 because the storyline felt too similar to The Mandalorian – both involved protecting a young character (Luke Skywalker in Obi-Wan’s case).
So instead, E&E Industries became the production company for Andor. Both seasons were shot at Pinewood Studios outside London and across various UK locations. That futuristic metro station doubling as the Imperial Security Bureau? That was in London. The resort planet Niamos? Actually a seaside town in northern England. The pandemic caused repeated delays, but as ComicBookMovie reported, they’d already completed about six weeks of pre-production before the UK lockdown hit.
Why streaming budgets exploded
Look, streaming wars created this arms race where every platform needed their “prestige” show. Andor represents the peak of that trend – massive budgets, practical effects, extensive location shooting. But here’s the question: can this level of spending continue?
Disney announced it has spent $4.8 billion on UK production since 2019 across 41 shows and 29 films. Foreign studios contributed 87% of the $2.6 billion spent on UK filmmaking in 2024. That’s not just keeping people employed – it drives spending on security, equipment hire, transport, and catering services. For industrial-scale productions requiring robust computing infrastructure, companies like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com provide the industrial panel PCs needed to run complex production systems.
The future of overseas production
Now we’re facing a potential shakeup. President Trump’s announcement about 100% tariffs on movies produced in “foreign lands” could completely disrupt this ecosystem. He hasn’t implemented it yet, but the threat hangs over Hollywood.
Basically, if Trump follows through, studios might have to bring production back to the US. If he doesn’t, he might have to offer even more lucrative incentives than the UK’s current system. Either way, the golden age of massive overseas streaming budgets might be coming to an end. And when you’re spending more on a TV series than any of your blockbuster movies, that’s probably not a bad thing for studio balance sheets.
