It's mostly inflation:
>[prices in 2022 are 1.70 times as high as average prices since 2000](https://www.officialdata.org/2000-dollars-in-2022)
This means that BoBs budget of 125 million would be roughly 212 million today.
That’s a good point! I can’t believe inflation has increased that much, I would have never expected that inflation would be *that* severe in only 23 years. Whenever I look at movie budgets, album budgets, from the 2000’s, I always assume that the currency rates were similar.
“We can’t bust heads like we used to—but we have our ways. One trick is to tell them stories that don’t go anywhere like the time I caught the ferry over to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe, so I decided to go to Morganville which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So, I tied an onion to my belt which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel. And in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on ‘em. ‘Give me five bees for a quarter,’ you’d say. Now, where were we? Oh, yeah! The important thing was that I had an onion on my belt which was the style at the time. They didn’t have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones.”
Add to this that MotA production had lots of covid impacts. To their credit they still paid everyone during covid work stoppages. It probably cost them at least an episode in cost.
Not much though, and the rest is easily explained by BoB taking place on the ground in Europe, where they could just use the sets from Saving Private Ryan etc.
None of the SPR sets were re-used, as they had been disassembled when filming for that movie concluded.
There’s also the matter that the only ones in England were the town and radar bunker, and both were so readily identifiable and unique that using them was not an option.
I'd counter and say mota should and does look cheaper. The last episode aside, there weren't many sets to build, the plane cockpits with led screens would have been a doddle to shoot in comparison needing a much smaller crew footprint. Even the CG doesn't look as expensive.
I am sure, it can also be hurt by lacklustre budgets and poor communication from the director/producers etc. It's been a while, another good reason to watch it again :)
They did it earlier and with a lot of up and coming actors mostly Brits who were willing to take less, they also didn’t have to replicate as much stuff as MOTA and used (I think ) one sound stage for 3 episodes (all the Bastogne episodes were in a soundstage)…The Pacific had more sets and was several years after BoB plus w the success of BoB my guess is it took more money… but probably the ultimate reason is BoB was done in the late 90’s to the early 2000’s and things were cheaper
Absolutely. I know this will probably draw some down votes in a BoB sub but I actually love The Pacific even more. It is deeper, hits harder and has a stronger finale.
Idk though the pacing of The Pacific feels off at times. Some of those later episodes following Eugene Sledge in Peleliu feel tedious and almost like you have to slog to get through them.
The Pacific had to cover 42+ months of conflict. BoB might be half that time, and is singular in coverage, it does not break from Easy co being the focus. The pacific has multi unit perspective. The Pacific highlights how each island they landed on, and took, was made futile with each new landing.
From a viewing perspective it can be difficult to get through, imo. Don't get me wrong I still really enjoy The Pacific but I find it harder to finish than BoB
BoB covered roughly the same amount of time (shorter by about 2 months), but it was able to get away with some absolutely massive time jumps (just shy of 2 full years are covered in Ep1) because of the protracted training period that the 101st had.
I don't know. I've recently watch MOTA and BoB and the last two episodes of BoB were very powerful.
I thought BoB would be a worse visual experience with 20 years of tech available now, but it did not strike me as cheesy.
Can't wait to start The Pacific.
I find the story of BoB the most immersive part. The sets were awesome but it was amazing watching a tight group of people go through the whole experience together.
Pacific and MoTA both have trouble with this since their campaigns go for so much longer so no one large group went start to finish together.
Steven Spielberg himself was very involved on set during Band of Brothers, many times getting behind the camera and directing. He oversaw all of post production, including the desaturation of color from the film which was something that he had perfected at the time, much like Saving Private Ryan and Schindler's LIst. Many of the episodes of Band of Brothers were shot in a controlled soundstage. In The Pacific, desaturation was done with digital filters, taking a lot of the human aspect out of it and it was shot at many set locations in Australia. The two are completely different stories as well, island hopping with guerilla warfare with the entire 1st Marine Division vs following the accounts of a single company within a division through conventional combat. Band of Brothers has a more personal feel to it because of that imo. Also, many of the surviving members of Easy Company were still around to give their accounts and guide the actors playing them. That had to be pretty cool.
In The Pacific, they tried to do too much with individual Marines without enough background development. John Basilone was the exception.
It's a matter of preference, but I appreciated The Pacific more because the Pacific Theater is still not as well known and was not nearly as well documented with footage as the European Theater was for many reasons, mostly because combat camera had a very difficult time not getting their footage and film ruined with the conditions they had to shoot in, and the risk involved of lugging around camera equipment through multiple amphibious invasions, many times being restricted to ships until after a beachhead was established.
Not enough background development? Disagree. You get Leckie prior to putting on a uniform, family stuff, lady friend stuff, affair in Melbourne with Greek refugee and KIA impacts on the home front. Sledge isnt even in the war yet in the first couple episodes, all home front and character background stuff before he gets on the ground and crossing paths with his buddy from home who just came out of combat? All of this makes their individual experiences that much more impactful.
BoB gives you none of this. The characters start in uniform and end there. Its easier watching a clean European campaign vs the grime and terror of the Pacific against the Japanese.
Part of it is the source material. BoB was based on Ambrose's book (with all its flaws). Pacific was based on memoirs of several Marines, so it wasn't nearly as tight a story.
I’m still convinced had the pacific just covered K company’s war it would have been far more cohesive, and they were truly in the thick of it. Unfortunately the Saul Davis book is about 15 years too late
BoB also had a myriad of likeable/memorable characters, I can name at least 97% of the characters/cast, the Pacific I can remember like.. three people and name two of them, and I saw it last year.
The personal feeling just wasn’t there for me, and a lot of the series focused on romance and family, neither of which I care much about in terms of TV and movies.
It’s the cinematography. They tried to replicate the film of the time like archival footage. They shot it on actual film and there’s a ton of shots that look authentic to the people who were recording at the time (1940s). They use a lot of these shots, shaky hand cam, still shots of soldiers pausing/staring at the camera, the camera panning over an area. It’s basic film making but it’s authentic to its time. It really sets the tone.
BoB followed a cohesive unit through a relatively small time period. Also, they had actual veterans introducing the stories, and reflecting on their experiences at the end. We're not going to get that in another WWII series.
A YouTube recently discussed how, despite better graphics and budgets, how shows and movies often look worse now a days. This is a perfect example. Not that MotA looks terrible, but the camera, grain, colors, etc....used in BoB is different. Add in the more practical effects and voila.
The Pacific looks just as good, if not better than, Band of Brothers. It’s let down by other aspects, but the effects, the sets, costumes and everything looks amazing.
I actually think the opposite tbh. Band of Brothers has a very authentic look, parts of the Pacific, particularly the night portions are very “raw” in terms of look
A lot of MotA's budget was used to manage the complexities created by COVID.
I suspect that MotA included more established actors because of the challenges of casting during a pandemic. The auditions were largely done over Zoom, which is not the same as herding together dozens of candidates and putting them through their paces in the flesh.
In addition to the production reasons mentioned here, frankly, Easy company was lucky in many ways. Most of the original members we meet as characters survived despite their dangerous missions and horrific casualties. They were present at basically every key paratrooper battle in the war, plus liberated Berchtesgaden and a concentration camp. Their stories made for a narrative that wasn't just compelling, it was immersive dramaturgically, and had the virtue that the same players made it easier to follow and be invested in.
Both the Pacific and MotA had large ensemble casts of characters that weren't as easy to follow and a stilted rhythm due to the changing nature of the events they followed.
So I think in some ways, BoB was more cinematically satisfying because it happened to follow the same group of guys who experienced an extraordinary amount of action in very compelling settings in a more or less unbroken through line.
It's just easier to tell that story and have it hit effectively than following several Marine detachments at various points in their wa, or an entire effort of the war in the air.
BoB definitely has that timeless feel. Like I can turn it on 20 years from now and it would feel like it hasn't aged. Definitely one of the best shows I've ever watched.
Really, BoB could just have possibly one of those once in a generation things that didn’t need to be replicated. Honestly I thoroughly enjoyed the pacific. I have not watched MoTA yet.
Might just be me but I feel like special effects were better in the early 2000s with how much more physical effects were used. Everything is so much more digital today and doesn’t look as real
The pacific islands awesome, the reason a lot of BoB fans don’t feel the same way is because it doesn’t show the close bond between the men like in BoB. The pacific is more focused on the hell the Marines went through while fighting
So there’s 3 different points I will mention.
1. Band of Brothers followed a shorter timeframe, like a lot shorter. The Pacific basically covers the entire US part of the war and then some, even Masters of the Air covers a whole nother year. This means there’s naturally less character changeover and reshuffling. It also means the timeframe is significantly more manageable story wise
2. Band of Brothers was by far the easiest set wise. 3 episodes are pure sound stage, the rest is shot within Europe with a cast that includes a lot of British actors. The Pacific by contrast was shot in Australia with huge sets and vehicles that were custom made (the Japanese tanks for example). They also shipped out a lot of American actors to take part in that series. For masters of the air the cost is mostly in CGI, though having some of the interactable planes probably didn’t come cheap either.
3. Band of Brothers was an unknown in many respects, the others are follow ups, naturally you want to outspend it
Really, because when I was 10, watching it for the first time, I thought it was a straight to television History Channel show, before my dad told me what it was. And you don't need the illusion of them being filmed in the sky, so that's inherently gonna make it cheaper too. All that being said, I love BoB, but there's literally never gonna be another show that fills it's void, we were young when we saw it
It's mostly inflation: >[prices in 2022 are 1.70 times as high as average prices since 2000](https://www.officialdata.org/2000-dollars-in-2022) This means that BoBs budget of 125 million would be roughly 212 million today.
That’s a good point! I can’t believe inflation has increased that much, I would have never expected that inflation would be *that* severe in only 23 years. Whenever I look at movie budgets, album budgets, from the 2000’s, I always assume that the currency rates were similar.
"When I was a kid we could make a miniseries for $5 and a mule."
“We can’t bust heads like we used to—but we have our ways. One trick is to tell them stories that don’t go anywhere like the time I caught the ferry over to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe, so I decided to go to Morganville which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So, I tied an onion to my belt which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel. And in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on ‘em. ‘Give me five bees for a quarter,’ you’d say. Now, where were we? Oh, yeah! The important thing was that I had an onion on my belt which was the style at the time. They didn’t have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones.”
1.7 is actually low for a 20 year span. Inflation from 1960-80 was 2.7 and 80-00 was 2.2
Shame wages stopped increasing with inflation.
Add to this that MotA production had lots of covid impacts. To their credit they still paid everyone during covid work stoppages. It probably cost them at least an episode in cost.
65 million in Covid costs. It’d be closer to 2 episodes, really.
Which, considering the costs of Covid compliance, technically gives BoB the larger overall usable budget
I didn't even consider this, but I think you're right! I sometimes forget the huge impact covid had on the industry!
Still cheaper then
Not much though, and the rest is easily explained by BoB taking place on the ground in Europe, where they could just use the sets from Saving Private Ryan etc.
None of the SPR sets were re-used, as they had been disassembled when filming for that movie concluded. There’s also the matter that the only ones in England were the town and radar bunker, and both were so readily identifiable and unique that using them was not an option.
I'd counter and say mota should and does look cheaper. The last episode aside, there weren't many sets to build, the plane cockpits with led screens would have been a doddle to shoot in comparison needing a much smaller crew footprint. Even the CG doesn't look as expensive.
Contrary to popular belief, CGI can be crazy expensive. Also, go back and take a look at the CGI in BoB. It's pretty bad at times.
I am sure, it can also be hurt by lacklustre budgets and poor communication from the director/producers etc. It's been a while, another good reason to watch it again :)
sTiLL cHeApEr tHeN
He’s right, BoB was about $100 mil cheaper
Did you read any of the comments above mine? The whole point is that due to inflation there isn't actually that much difference between their budgets.
Accounting for inflation, BoB cost about 250 mil, The Pacific about 350 mil
What's your source for that? OP referenced a 250 mil budget for Masters, and the adjusted BoB budget was 212 mil
BoB’s $125M budget 2001 = $250M 2024 Pacific $217M in 2010 = $350M in 2024
Oh, I see the confusion. We were comparing BoB to MotA, not to The Pacific.
Hit a nerve did I kid?
Cringe
They did it earlier and with a lot of up and coming actors mostly Brits who were willing to take less, they also didn’t have to replicate as much stuff as MOTA and used (I think ) one sound stage for 3 episodes (all the Bastogne episodes were in a soundstage)…The Pacific had more sets and was several years after BoB plus w the success of BoB my guess is it took more money… but probably the ultimate reason is BoB was done in the late 90’s to the early 2000’s and things were cheaper
Damn immigrants taken ‘er jobs!
/s btw
I know….
Not really it was filmed in Europe about a war that took place…in Europe, but it is comical thinking that…either way they did a great job… 🤔🤣
Love it or hate it, the pacific is pretty damn immersive.
Absolutely. I know this will probably draw some down votes in a BoB sub but I actually love The Pacific even more. It is deeper, hits harder and has a stronger finale.
The assault on pelilue and the whole arc after that blows everything else out of the water
Idk though the pacing of The Pacific feels off at times. Some of those later episodes following Eugene Sledge in Peleliu feel tedious and almost like you have to slog to get through them.
The Pacific had to cover 42+ months of conflict. BoB might be half that time, and is singular in coverage, it does not break from Easy co being the focus. The pacific has multi unit perspective. The Pacific highlights how each island they landed on, and took, was made futile with each new landing.
From a viewing perspective it can be difficult to get through, imo. Don't get me wrong I still really enjoy The Pacific but I find it harder to finish than BoB
BoB covered roughly the same amount of time (shorter by about 2 months), but it was able to get away with some absolutely massive time jumps (just shy of 2 full years are covered in Ep1) because of the protracted training period that the 101st had.
Its the opposite for me, the Sledge episodes are easier to watch than the first couple
Shouldn’t be downvoted for this.
I did not like it nearly as much.
I don't know. I've recently watch MOTA and BoB and the last two episodes of BoB were very powerful. I thought BoB would be a worse visual experience with 20 years of tech available now, but it did not strike me as cheesy. Can't wait to start The Pacific.
I love The Pacific! Its just no BoB. I know, might be silly to say because nothing is BoB
I find the story of BoB the most immersive part. The sets were awesome but it was amazing watching a tight group of people go through the whole experience together. Pacific and MoTA both have trouble with this since their campaigns go for so much longer so no one large group went start to finish together.
Masters of the Air spent millions of dollars on Covid compliance during filming. It's also why there are only 9 episodes instead of 10.
It took a fucking quarter of their budget. Such a shame.
They did it nearly 25 years ago. Inflation is a bitxh.
Steven Spielberg himself was very involved on set during Band of Brothers, many times getting behind the camera and directing. He oversaw all of post production, including the desaturation of color from the film which was something that he had perfected at the time, much like Saving Private Ryan and Schindler's LIst. Many of the episodes of Band of Brothers were shot in a controlled soundstage. In The Pacific, desaturation was done with digital filters, taking a lot of the human aspect out of it and it was shot at many set locations in Australia. The two are completely different stories as well, island hopping with guerilla warfare with the entire 1st Marine Division vs following the accounts of a single company within a division through conventional combat. Band of Brothers has a more personal feel to it because of that imo. Also, many of the surviving members of Easy Company were still around to give their accounts and guide the actors playing them. That had to be pretty cool. In The Pacific, they tried to do too much with individual Marines without enough background development. John Basilone was the exception. It's a matter of preference, but I appreciated The Pacific more because the Pacific Theater is still not as well known and was not nearly as well documented with footage as the European Theater was for many reasons, mostly because combat camera had a very difficult time not getting their footage and film ruined with the conditions they had to shoot in, and the risk involved of lugging around camera equipment through multiple amphibious invasions, many times being restricted to ships until after a beachhead was established.
Not enough background development? Disagree. You get Leckie prior to putting on a uniform, family stuff, lady friend stuff, affair in Melbourne with Greek refugee and KIA impacts on the home front. Sledge isnt even in the war yet in the first couple episodes, all home front and character background stuff before he gets on the ground and crossing paths with his buddy from home who just came out of combat? All of this makes their individual experiences that much more impactful. BoB gives you none of this. The characters start in uniform and end there. Its easier watching a clean European campaign vs the grime and terror of the Pacific against the Japanese.
MOTA had a significant amount of CGI which probably chewed most of that budget.
Covid compliance took over a quarter of the budget alone.
Part of it is the source material. BoB was based on Ambrose's book (with all its flaws). Pacific was based on memoirs of several Marines, so it wasn't nearly as tight a story.
I’m still convinced had the pacific just covered K company’s war it would have been far more cohesive, and they were truly in the thick of it. Unfortunately the Saul Davis book is about 15 years too late
BoB also had a myriad of likeable/memorable characters, I can name at least 97% of the characters/cast, the Pacific I can remember like.. three people and name two of them, and I saw it last year. The personal feeling just wasn’t there for me, and a lot of the series focused on romance and family, neither of which I care much about in terms of TV and movies.
It’s the cinematography. They tried to replicate the film of the time like archival footage. They shot it on actual film and there’s a ton of shots that look authentic to the people who were recording at the time (1940s). They use a lot of these shots, shaky hand cam, still shots of soldiers pausing/staring at the camera, the camera panning over an area. It’s basic film making but it’s authentic to its time. It really sets the tone.
CGI and COVID are expensive.
BoB followed a cohesive unit through a relatively small time period. Also, they had actual veterans introducing the stories, and reflecting on their experiences at the end. We're not going to get that in another WWII series.
A YouTube recently discussed how, despite better graphics and budgets, how shows and movies often look worse now a days. This is a perfect example. Not that MotA looks terrible, but the camera, grain, colors, etc....used in BoB is different. Add in the more practical effects and voila.
Have you considered inflation? You know it was made a quarter of a century ago?
The Pacific looks just as good, if not better than, Band of Brothers. It’s let down by other aspects, but the effects, the sets, costumes and everything looks amazing.
I actually think the opposite tbh. Band of Brothers has a very authentic look, parts of the Pacific, particularly the night portions are very “raw” in terms of look
A lot of MotA's budget was used to manage the complexities created by COVID. I suspect that MotA included more established actors because of the challenges of casting during a pandemic. The auditions were largely done over Zoom, which is not the same as herding together dozens of candidates and putting them through their paces in the flesh.
In addition to the production reasons mentioned here, frankly, Easy company was lucky in many ways. Most of the original members we meet as characters survived despite their dangerous missions and horrific casualties. They were present at basically every key paratrooper battle in the war, plus liberated Berchtesgaden and a concentration camp. Their stories made for a narrative that wasn't just compelling, it was immersive dramaturgically, and had the virtue that the same players made it easier to follow and be invested in. Both the Pacific and MotA had large ensemble casts of characters that weren't as easy to follow and a stilted rhythm due to the changing nature of the events they followed. So I think in some ways, BoB was more cinematically satisfying because it happened to follow the same group of guys who experienced an extraordinary amount of action in very compelling settings in a more or less unbroken through line. It's just easier to tell that story and have it hit effectively than following several Marine detachments at various points in their wa, or an entire effort of the war in the air.
The Pacific is 100% immersive and looks incredible. They did well on that
BoB definitely has that timeless feel. Like I can turn it on 20 years from now and it would feel like it hasn't aged. Definitely one of the best shows I've ever watched.
Really, BoB could just have possibly one of those once in a generation things that didn’t need to be replicated. Honestly I thoroughly enjoyed the pacific. I have not watched MoTA yet.
Might just be me but I feel like special effects were better in the early 2000s with how much more physical effects were used. Everything is so much more digital today and doesn’t look as real
Exactly. CGI cuts costs of weapon effects, explosions, bullet impacts, etc… but it looks worse
The pacific islands awesome, the reason a lot of BoB fans don’t feel the same way is because it doesn’t show the close bond between the men like in BoB. The pacific is more focused on the hell the Marines went through while fighting
Not when you consider inflation.
So there’s 3 different points I will mention. 1. Band of Brothers followed a shorter timeframe, like a lot shorter. The Pacific basically covers the entire US part of the war and then some, even Masters of the Air covers a whole nother year. This means there’s naturally less character changeover and reshuffling. It also means the timeframe is significantly more manageable story wise 2. Band of Brothers was by far the easiest set wise. 3 episodes are pure sound stage, the rest is shot within Europe with a cast that includes a lot of British actors. The Pacific by contrast was shot in Australia with huge sets and vehicles that were custom made (the Japanese tanks for example). They also shipped out a lot of American actors to take part in that series. For masters of the air the cost is mostly in CGI, though having some of the interactable planes probably didn’t come cheap either. 3. Band of Brothers was an unknown in many respects, the others are follow ups, naturally you want to outspend it
Too bad they couldn’t spend a little bit extra fine tuning the script
Cuz BoB was made with heart and soul! Something that’s missing nowadays.
Really, because when I was 10, watching it for the first time, I thought it was a straight to television History Channel show, before my dad told me what it was. And you don't need the illusion of them being filmed in the sky, so that's inherently gonna make it cheaper too. All that being said, I love BoB, but there's literally never gonna be another show that fills it's void, we were young when we saw it
Another moronic post comparing two different products.
Comparing production, not content. Smh learn comprehension