Mandalorian's The Child Puppet Cost $5 Million?!?

[Sid 6.7]

Media have latched onto the quote made by Adam Pally, the scout trooper who punched Baby Not-Yoda, that the hero puppet cost $5 million. There's no way it cost that much, no matter how intricate the possibly wireless, miniature animatronics might cost. Even if for some crazy reason, the internal mechanisms were made from exotic materials like carbon fiber and titanium, there's no way there's even $100,000 in this puppet. I would go so far as to say I don't even think it's auction value to a collector would would be anywhere near $5 million.

 

[Captain Dunsel]

The skeletal framework of the puppet, alone, is 100% pure Unobtainium.

 

[eethan]

If you take into account the development time and the assembly time with the people that worked on it; maybe you are a bit closer. Now maybe it was an exageration just to point out it was expensive but the guy said a random number...

 

[Cameron]

ummmm...cloning!? Hello....

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

Did you factor in the cost of "cuteness"? No I don't think you did.

 

[LTsmash1200]

If you take into account the development time and the assembly time with the people that worked on it; maybe you are a bit closer. Now maybe it was an exageration just to point out it was expensive but the guy said a random number...

That's how I took it when I read what Favreau said. He was just telling the guy to be careful when he's punching it because it's the hero puppet and it was expensive. It probably wasn't literally $5 million.

 

[James Kenobi 1138]

Worth. Every. Penny.

 

[StevenBills]

They've made it back and then some.

SB

 

[Darth Lars]

I would think they made several puppets for different shots and that they could have cost $5 million altogether.

 

[DarthWilder]

"I just want to let you know that this is the hero Yoda and it costs, like, $5 million. So while I want you to hit it, I just want you to know that."

The word "like" can be used as a discourse/disfluency marker. From wikipedia:

"Like can be used as hedge to indicate that the following phrase will be an approximation or exaggeration, or that the following words may not be quite right, but are close enough. It may indicate that the phrase in which it appears is to be taken metaphorically or as a hyperbole. This use of like is sometimes regarded as adverbial, as like is often synonymous here with adverbial phrases of approximation, such as "almost" or "more or less." Examples:

• I have, like, no money.
• The restaurant is only, like, five miles from here.
• I, like, died!
• They, like, hate you!"

 

[BRRogers]

Maybe it is *worth* 5 million,

I doubt the materials cost nearly that much

cumulatively though?

research, debate, concepts, sculpts, revisions, prototypes... Coming from a highly skilled group of movie artisans working on Disney’s/ Star Wars dime? I don’t know. How much cost is behind two months or longer work for say... a team of 20 people working (average) of 200 bucks an hour.
1.5 million minimum.
Finished and extremely cute/successful hero puppet? Priceless

 

[Halliwax]

Pretty sure I read they also did a complete CGI version, encase the puppet didn’t look right

I can see 5 million in puppet and CGI work

 

[DaddyfromNaboo]

Pretty sure I read they also did a complete CGI version, encase the puppet didn’t look right

I can see 5 million in puppet and CGI work

Even if so, I cannot see that amount going into that puppet.

If I break it down to mannhours that would mean rougly 100.000 units at 50 UsD per hour, equating at e.g. 50 people working 2000 hrs straight on that project. Materials not taken into account.

The Phantom Menace had a budget of iIRC 1 Million USD for Production Design.

Does anyone know how much the average cost for an episode was?

 

[ZeroSum]

$15 million.

 

[Scote]

I work in VFX. And I can see a 5 millions a CGI character that you used yes.

Does not cost much to create the thing in CGI. But cost a lot more to put it, animated and integrated in a shot. Multiple shot it could escalate quickly.

Example Wonderwoman shield was full CGI in all shots (yes they decide to redo the design after they shot the prop lol). Cost 3000$ by shot just to replace a real prop by a CGI version. Imagine animating a full character.

I can see some shots could be full CG with baby Yoda. But does not cost 5 millions total for the few screen presence of his CGI presence. There were more practical shots in all 8 episodes.

In resume, the guy did throw random numbers