Why do ~2 hour movies take 2-3 years to make, while an 6+ hour TV season can be made in 1 year?
In: 1947
A lot of great answers are already here, but I’ll throw out one more thing I don’t see mentioned yet… TV shows will typically have multiple different directors each season, each responsibility for different episodes whereas a movie has a single director for the whole movie. That means TV shows can work on multiple episodes at the same time. Take GOT that was mentioned in other comments, they would have 4 to 6 different directors per season. So while one director was in one location filming scenes for Kings Landing, another could be in another location filming scenes at the Wall, another filming scenes in Dorne, etc. Even different scenes at the same location for different episodes could have one director filming a scene, while another is working on their scene nearby but on a different set (assuming it was different actors in the scene). In a movie with a single director though, they are involved with filming each and every scene.
Another factor (for sitcoms especially) is the multi-camera approach. By filming with multiple cameras at the same time, they can capture different angles and therefore use fewer takes to get the scene. Lighting problem for a few seconds on one camera? Just switch and use one of the others rather than having to reshoot the scene. Plus some of the cameras are always in a fixed location for each set piece, so rather than having to worry about the cameraman moving around following the action, they just have to zoom in and out as appropriate. Movies (and many drama TV shows, some sitcoms too) are filmed with a single camera. It typically means more takes as they have to worry about getting camera angles right and worry more about the correct lighting and sound, etc.
Finally one last point to mention is set design. TV shows will usually have a handful of set locations that they use over and over. They can just leave these locations setup and just make minor changes they might need episode after episode. For movies, there’s a lot more time needed to build each set, make it look perfect, tear it down, build another set, etc.
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