A lot of the talk around the disappointing opening of “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” ties to its budget.
Costing $295 million to make and at least another $100 million in marketing and P&A spend, the film needs to be a massive success and one of the year’s biggest hits to make a profit – something it seems unlikely to do now unless several subsequent weekends perform better than its first.
Whilst it may sound like a fortune, it’s actually not the most expensive film of the Summer – that being “Fast X” with a reported price tag of $340 million. “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” comes in at $290 million, whilst “The Little Mermaid” and “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” both came in at $250 million each.
Marvel Studios, in particular, has seen its costs rise in recent years with “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” being its last ‘cheap’ film at $150 million. “Eternals” was $236 million, and last year’s newest “Thor” and “Black Panther” entries were $250 million each.
Today comes word that one of Marvel Studios’ biggest post-“Endgame” hits with Sam Raimi’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” was considerably more expensive than stated.
Officially the film’s budget was reported as $200 million. However, recently disclosed financial statements covering the film’s production in the U.K. have been picked up by Forbes and reveal the actual budget was essentially the same as the new Indiana Jones – $294.5 million.
In fact, it was considerably higher, with total costs of $349 million before tax reimbursements of $54.5 million bringing that down to the sub-$300 million mark. Even with that considered, it is easily the most expensive non-Avengers film in the MCU to date. That’s not including marketing spend at around $100-150 million.
Luckily for Marvel, the film managed to earn $955 million worldwide and became one of the biggest hits of 2022 overall – but with those sorts of numbers, it’s still not going to be hugely profitable for them.
Is there any hope? Plenty. This year has seen some quite frugal smash successes. The year’s two biggest animated hits “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” and “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” both cost just $100 million each to produce, with the former having made $1.3 billion and the latter already at $611 million and growing.
In fact, a $100 million budget is proving a sweet spot for several films this year, with “John Wick: Chapter 4” made for that and taking in $432 million worldwide, whilst both “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” are listed as having come in at that price with both expected to earn multiple times that number.
