10 Most Expensive TV Shows Of All Time

Marco Polo fictionalised the story of explorer Marco Polo in the court of Kublai Khan, who led the Mongol Empire and founded the Yuan Dynasty of China. Although originally meant to release on Starz, The series came out on Netflix in 2014 and was cancelled in 2016 after 2 seasons. The show had a budget of roughly $9 million per episode. It was filmed in Malaysia and Italy and had a large cast of stars including Benedict Wong as Kublai Khan.

The show failed to generate enough of an audience to garner a third season. According to some Mongolian experts, the show was historically inaccurate throughout, while other viewers have praised the series. According to Orgil Narangerel, who had previously played Genghis Khan in a BBC documentary, the show depicted Mongolian culture better than any previous foreign depiction.

Marco Polo was one of Netflix's most expensive and ambitious projects to date, and while it did garner some support, the budget was simply too high to continue, with Netlfix stating that the show had lost them $200 million. The decision to cancel the show was made by Netflix The Weinstein Company, which had been producing the show.