A more serious, less narcissistic industry would view a competitor blowing them out of the water for less than a tenth of the budget as a chance for some deep introspection. Not Hollywood, though, their reaction is more like:
“Godzilla Minus what??? Bring me some more money!”
We reported yesterday on the ridiculous budgets the Russo’s have been burning through, and the staggering amount spent on their latest Netflix project. Now it looks like Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski’s F1 racing movie, Brad Pitt-led Apex, has seen its budget pass the $300 million mark.
Scooper Daniel Richtman reported that extensive reshoots were required as the strikes caused a pause in production. In the interim, a new F1 season means all the cars have changed designs and sponsors, so all of the previously shot F1 race footage gathered from various races last season has had to be thrown in the trash.
The Apple Studios project will now have to move fast, as the 2024 / 2025 season is already underway.
Meanwhile, from the same files, Dark Horizons has posted a report from Forbes that claims the total cost for making and releasing Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness stands at $414.9 million.
Normally, this type of detail is lost in the opaque world of Hollywood Accounting. However, films shot in the United Kingdom receive an Audio-Visual Expenditure Credit, effectively a tax break.
To receive this, they have to file extensive, and publically available, financial statements to demonstrate they met the criteria.
In the same article, Forbes also claimed that Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame came to a combined total cost of $1.265 billion to make, market, and distribute.
As Marvel learned from Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania and The Marvels, with this level of cost you don’t need an awful lot to go wrong to leave you staring down the barrel of a massive loss.
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