California Film Commission filings reveal per season budgets

[James Cole]

All three seasons of PICARD received tax credits from the California Film Commission. This program is designed to try and retain film production in California, and compete with tax credit schemes in other places such as Canada. Buried deep within the film commission website are pdfs detailing just how much each series cost the tax payer...

Star Trek Picard 1
125 filming days
2150 extras and stand ins
300 crew hired
72 cast hired
$ 75,574,000 in Qualified Expenditures in California
$ 15,646,000 in tax credits

Star Trek Picard 2
105 filming days
2500 extras and stand ins
350 crew hired
125 cast hired
$ 101,249,000 in Qualified Expenditures in California
$ 20,452,000 in tax credits

Star Trek Picard 3
100 filming days
3500 background players
150 cast hired
350 crew hired
$ 100,517,000 in Qualified Expenditures in California
$ 20,563,000 in tax credits

Per Deadline, COVID compliance measures typically added 25% to the cost of production, and COVID costs were eligible to be included in tax credits.

PICARD also credits the "North Macedonia Film Commission" -- indicating there might be some subsidized post production occurring there as well.

For comparison, THE ORVILLE season 1 had $ 40,026,000 in qualified expenses, S2 $ 69,169,000, and S3 $ 64,230,000. The final season of LUCIFER (10 eps, but 80 days of filming and not 100) also shot during COVID with extensive locations and cost $ 41,143,000. STAR WARS: SKELETON CREW had 121 days of filming with a budget of $ 135,746,000.

So it looks like just over 1% of the PS3 budget went to recreating the E-D bridge...

Sources [link to pdf]: PS1 & PS2 || PS3

 

[F. King Daniel]

Fascinating, I expected these series' to have a blockbuster film budget, $150 - $200 million. But looks like they did them on a Nemesis budget.

 

[Lord Garth]

So it looks like just over 1% of the PS3 budget went to recreating the E-D bridge...

Thanks for posting this. I had a feeling the sentiment of "They blew the budget on recreating the Enterprise-D!" was overblown by certain people. At the end of the day, it was just one set. No matter how much care was put into recreating it. If anything, they probably spent more on the new interiors for the Titan-A/Enterprise-G. Some of it was recycled from the Stargazer, but the rest of it had to be built from scratch.

 

[TedShatner10]

They had big enough budgets, but I had feeling they were not stupidly gigantic like many MCU productions recently, a bit more in line with 80s/90s Star Trek productions.

 

[Sci]

Thanks for posting this. I had a feeling the sentiment of "They blew the budget on recreating the Enterprise-D!" was overblown by certain people. At the end of the day, it was just one set. No matter how much care was put into recreating it. If anything, they probably spent more on the new interiors for the Titan-A/Enterprise-G. Some of it was recycled from the Stargazer, but the rest of it had to be built from scratch.

I would imagine the most expensive line items on the S3 budget were the returning TNG cast.

 

[Corran Horn]

I would imagine the most expensive line items on the S3 budget were the returning TNG cast.

Costs are certainly important. For example, them not having an auction/sell-off of Picard S3 uniforms and props and such (like they did for Picard S1/2) makes me think there might be more of a future for a follow-on series than otherwise.

 

[Galaxy]

Thanks for that.

I heard that Picard Season 3 had a show string budget compared to previous seasons, clearly that was not the case.

So Picard was roughly below The Mandalorian, but above The Obi Wan Kenobi Show.

PICARD also credits the "North Macedonia Film Commission" -- indicating there might be some subsidized post production occurring there as well.

I was wondering about that.

 

[James Cole]

Thanks for that.

I heard that Picard Season 3 had a show string budget compared to previous seasons, clearly that was not the case.

So Picard was roughly below The Mandalorian, but above The Obi Wan Keobi Show.

Yeah, I've heard season 3 had an effective per episode budget that was 1/4th that of SNW.

Seasons 1 and 2 likely went over budget. Could some of those costs be amortized over to season 3? Does season 3 really have more extras than season 2?

Another interesting thing is season 1 having 125 filming days. That's two episodes worth of reshoots.

 

[drt]

Yeah there's something funky going on with how all of those numbers are being calculated.

Seasons 1 and 2 likely went over budget. Could some of those costs be amortized over to season 3? Does season 3 really have more extras than season 2?

Stuff used over multiple seasons should be amortizable over multiple seasons, so the La Sirena sets and the Stargazer/Titan bridge are likely accounted across three and two seasons respectively. It was reported that Patrick Stewart's salary was $7.5M for season 1, undoubtedly it went up every season, so he alone was probably 10% of each season's budget.

My guess is the extras might be accounted per shooting day, i.e. using around 35 extras per day over 100 shooting days for season 3 seems more in line with what we saw on TV, yet gives you a total of 3500.

 

[Danja]

Yeah there's something funky going on with how all of those numbers are being calculated.

Hollywood is notorious for "creative accounting" (it explains how a film can gross $500 million at the box office without turning a profit).

 

[Quantum21]

$100 million is a healthy budget for a season. I for one never believed the hype about penny-pinching.

 

[fireproof78]

Hollywood is notorious for "creative accounting" (it explains how a film can gross $500 million at the box office without turning a profit).

Yup.

And with the strikes and new contracts prices will go up.

 

[FederationHistorian]

$100M per season seems reasonable, considering who was brought on to be part of the cast. And they told a much better story than in NEM or INS. Although, if NEM or INS were stretched to ten episode, they’d just be at good.

But I also understand why S3 could not bring on more guest stars. S2 would basically have to be cannibalised to make it happen.

 

[Nerys Myk]

$100M per season seems reasonable, considering who was brought on to be part of the cast. And they told a much better story than in NEM or INS. Although, if NEM or INS were stretched to ten episode, they’d just be at good.

But I also understand why S3 could not bring on more guest stars. S2 would basically have to be cannibalised to make it happen.

Damming with faint praise.

 

[mswood]

Yeah, I've heard season 3 had an effective per episode budget that was 1/4th that of SNW.

Seasons 1 and 2 likely went over budget. Could some of those costs be amortized over to season 3? Does season 3 really have more extras than season 2?

Another interesting thing is season 1 having 125 filming days. That's two episodes worth of reshoots.

On the length of the shoot I wonder if it's still common for first episodes to take longer to shoot. Even shows that have a full season pickup already guaranteed before filming (like all Trek shows since the start of TNG) have had longer shoots for their "pilot" episode (s). That could certainly eat up the difference in shooting length.

 

[Noname Given]

And remember, S3 was pretty much a 'bottle show' start to finish. In fact I don't think there was much shot off a standing set for Picard S3; plus, with the exception of the 1701-D Bridge set, the sets used were all built during S1 and S2, with many being slightly redressed for S3.

Further, given there was a day or so (per Patrick Stewart's own comments - not even a full weekend), between wrapping on S2 and starting shooting for S3, there may indeed be some creative Hollywood accounting happening for the S2 and S3 budgets to maximize tax credit returns.

As for there being no sell off for S3, remember S2 and S3 were filmed back to back so the Starfleet costumes in S3 were made during S1 & S2, and fall under those budgets for the most part - same with the majority of the props.

They didn't do the auction until all 3 seasons wrapped photograpy.

 

[Jedman67]

$10 m per episode is pretty sweet. Hard to believe Patrick Stewart commands a $7m salary per season.

I think S3 would have been better if they'd trimmed it by 2 episodes.

 

[Char Kais]

Is the cost for international VFX studios (Pixomondo (Germany), DNEG (UK)) included in "Qualified Expenditures in California"?

They have satellite studios in California, but I don't know if the satellite studios are getting billed and therefore the VFX costs are "Qualified Expenditures in California".

 

[Noname Given]

Is the cost for international VFX studios (Pixomondo (Germany), DNEG (UK)) included in "Qualified Expenditures in California"?

They have satellite studios in California, but I don't know if the satellite studios are getting billed and therefore the VFX costs are "Qualified Expenditures in California".

If they used ILM, it's still in Marin county, CA.