Short answers, pulled from the story.
Game of Thrones premiered on the 17th of April 2011 with an estimated budget of fifty to sixty million dollars for its first season. Production costs reached fifteen million dollars per episode by the final season in 2019.
Principal photography began on the 26th of July 2010 at the Paint Hall Studios in Belfast Northern Ireland while Castle Ward served as Winterfell. Filming moved to Malta for southern scenes using Mdina as King's Landing and Croatia provided Dubrovnik as the walled city of King's Landing.
David Benioff read the first four books of A Song of Ice and Fire in January 2006 during a phone call with George R.R. Martin's literary agent. HBO acquired the television rights in January 2007 with Benioff and D.B. Weiss serving as executive producers.
Peter Dinklage and Sean Bean joined the pilot cast in 2009 before any other actors were announced while Kit Harington played Jon Snow and Jack Gleeson portrayed Joffrey Baratheon. Harry Lloyd took the role of Viserys Targaryen and Mark Addy became Robert Baratheon.
The show ran from 2011 to 2019 with eight seasons produced by HBO. The total budget for the eighth season exceeded one hundred million dollars making it the most expensive series ever produced at that time.