Sony Spends A Record $140 Million On The Crown

The latest series of royal docudrama The Crown has taken the throne of being the most expensive instalment in the history of the show with its production cost hitting $143.3 million (£115.7 million) according to recently-filed financial statements.

It brings the total that Sony’s Left Bank Pictures (LBP) division has spent on The Crown to $504 million (£407.1 million) since it premiered on NetflixNFLX
in 2016. The series was the brainchild of British screenwriter Peter Morgan who penned the 2007 Oscar-winning biopic The Queen which starred Helen Mirren in the title role. It was such a success that Morgan wrote a play about the late monarch and The Crown was based on it.

According to Netflix, the show has been watched by more than 73 million households worldwide since then and it has been credited with giving the British monarchy a new generation of followers. They were attracted by the spicy storylines and all-star cast including British actress Claire Foy who played a youthful version of the Queen in the first two seasons of The Crown before being recast with Oscar-winner Olivia Colman.

The fifth season was released in November and follows the royal family through the 1990s. It features an entirely new cast including Imelda Staunton as the Queen, Dominic West as Prince Charles and Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana. The series benefited from the royal family being thrust into the spotlight following the death of the Queen in September and the publicity blitz in the run up to the release of Prince Harry’s explosive autobiography, ‘Spare’.

This contributed to the fifth season being watched for a total of 107.4 million hours in its first five days propelling it to the top of the Netflix charts in 37 countries. It was filmed just outside London at Elstree Studios and on location throughout the UK which shines a spotlight on its finances.

Budgets of television shows are usually a closely-guarded secret as studios tend to absorb the cost of individual programmes in their overall expenses. However, the costs of shows made in the UK are consolidated in single companies which file annual financial statements.

This helps them benefit from the government’s Television Tax Relief scheme which allows production companies to claim a cash credit of up to 25% of the costs they incur in the UK. The key condition is that they must spend at least $1.2 million (£1 million) per broadcast hour which is small beer for The Crown.

Financial statements for LBP The Crown 5 reveal that each of the ten episodes in series five cost the princely price of around $14.4 million (£11.6 million) per hour and there is good reason for this.

The producers had a firm rule that no more than one-third of any shot could be created digitally and this led to them building a life-size replica of the central section of Buckingham Palace. It came complete with its gates, gate posts, and famous balcony but it doesn’t stop there. Although some stock inside the building was sourced from the period, the other items were made from scratch and the props department even hired an expert in period packaging to ensure continuity.

The spending rose as the show became more popular and the latest series cost 32% more to make than its predecessor and more than double the $70.5 million (£56.9 million) spent on the first season as shown in the graph below.

The financial statements reveal that LBP has received a total tax credit of $98.8 million (£79.8 million) for making all five seasons of The Crown, bringing the net production cost to $405.2 million. It has paid off.

LBP was founded in 2007 by UK television executives Andy Harries, Marigo Kehoe and Francis Hopkinson. It was the first British production company to receive investment from BBC Worldwide, the former commercial arm of the BBC, which paid $1.2 million (£1 million) for a 25% stake and also got distribution rights to all of LBP’s productions.

BBC Worldwide began to exit in 2012 when Sony bought a majority stake in LBP. It paid $6.8 million (£5.5 million) for a further 5.32% stake in June last year valuing the company at $129 million (£104.2 million).

Although The Crown has put LBP on the media map it has also put it in the crosshairs of high-profile personalities who have slammed the show for its inaccuracy.

“Fiction should not be paraded as fact,” said former UK Prime Minister Sir John Major who announced the separation of the Prince and Princess of Wales in the Houses of Parliament in 1992. A spokesperson for his successor Tony Blair, who was Prime Minister when Princess Diana died, called The Crown “complete and utter rubbish”. Royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith added that it is “doing significant damage to people’s perception of history and their perception of the royal family”.

LBP appears to have listened to the criticism as a disclaimer was added to the latest season describing it as a “fictional dramatization” which is “inspired by real events”. It hasn’t taken the shine off The Crown’s appeal and a sixth, and final, series is currently in production. It is expected to cover the period up to the present day which has been one of the most tumultuous times in the history of the royal family. So although the curtain is finally coming down on The Crown, it seems set to go out on a high note.