According to the Wall Street Journal, the series adaptation of the award-winning novels by Liu Cixin (The Three-Body Problem, 2014) by Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and DB Weiss would cost around $20 million per episode , with the first season totaling a budget of $160 million. This is the highest cost per episode of all the first seasons in Netflix history. The previous record holder being the adaptation of One Piece in 2023 at $17 million per episode.
The 8 episodes of 3 Body Problem have a budget comparable to that of House of the Dragon, with the HBO series being budgeted at around $20 million per episode. Disney+ is, however, still above with the Marvel series at $25 million per episode, while Amazon puts everyone in agreement with Citadel at $50 million per episode and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power at $58 million per episode.
The official synopsis of 3 Body Problem states: “A decision made by a young woman in China in the 1960s has spatiotemporal repercussions even in the present. When the laws of nature inexplicably unravel before the eyes of a tight-knit group of brilliant scientists, they join forces with an unyielding detective to confront the greatest threat in human history.†The Three-Body Problem will be released on Netflix on March 21.