Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

One Piece on Netflix arrives at huge cost for streaming service

The gamble looks set to pay off

Jacob Stolworthy
Tuesday 05 September 2023 15:34 BST
Comments
One Piece trailer

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

One of Netflix’s most eagerly anticipated shows is speculated to have arrived at quite a cost for the streaming service.

On Thursday (31 August), the live-action version of the long-running Japanese manga series One Piece was released on the platform.

The show, which has been developed by Matt Owens and Steven Maeda, is topping the platform’s most-watched lists in territories around the world, and this is just as well considering how much each episode reportedly cost for the streaming service.

The official site for Netflix Germany, which has been highlighted by One Piece fan @AliAhmelegend, claimed that each episode of the series (which is seeing many of the manga’s classic animated scenes brought to life by actors) is rather expensive, with a budget of $17m (£13.4m)

For comparison, while this is below the episode budget of established hit Stranger Things, it is $3m (£2.3m) more than HBO was paying for each instalment of Game of Thrones’s final season.

However, this information has since been removed from the site.

This is a hefty sum to pay for a brand new series, but it’s proof that Netflix has faith in the material and its loyal fanbase, which has seen One Piece become the best-selling manga series in history. As of August 2022, it had sold over 516.6 million copies in 61 countries and regions worldwide.

The gamble appears to be paying off: as of the show’s release on Friday morning, it was the number one trend on X/Twitter. The original manga was created by Eiichiro Oda in 1997.

Netflix’s live-action series stars Iñaki Godoy as Monkey D Luffy, a character who goes on an expedition to locate lost treasure alongside a pirate crew that includes Roronoa Zoro (played by Mackenyu), Nami (played by Emilky Rudd), Usopp (played by Jacob Romero) and Sanji (played by Taz Skylar).

One Piece is available to stream on Netflix now.

If you’re travelling abroad and want to watch One Piece then you might need a VPN to unblock your streaming app. Our VPN roundup is here to help: get the best VPN deals on the market.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in