Universal Pictures reportedly spent around $844.7 million on the two “Jurassic World” sequels – ‘Fallen Kingdom’ and ‘Dominion’ – according to a new article at Forbes.
The publication indicates 2018’s “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” was the big spender. The movie’s estimated production budget has always been listed at $170 million with an unknown amount spent on marketing and distribution. The new report lists the film’s final total expenses for Universal to date coming in at $516.1 million.
That makes it one of the most expensive films in history and not far behind “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” who earlier this year was revealed by Forbes to have come in at a final cost of around $533.2 million.
By comparison, the more recent “Jurassic World: Dominion” reportedly came in cheaper – even with COVID cost overruns and a larger estimated $185 million production budget. The outlet indicates that film’s total cost came to $328.6 million.
The figures were disclosed in filings for two UK production companies owned by Universal. Whilst costs on films are often shrouded in secrecy, films shot in the UK often consolidate their cost into single companies in order to benefit from the government’s Film Tax Relief scheme.
Doing so they receive a reimbursement of up to 25% of their costs in the UK. Said reimbursements can only be paid to UK companies that handle all aspects of the movie-making process from pre-production to completion. Often marketing, distribution and home entertainment costs are also handled by said companies which is why they’re considerably higher than just the production budgets.
‘Fallen Kingdom’ reportedly received $84.5 million in tax credit with ‘Dominion’ snagging $64.1 million. The publication worked out that despite the expenses, both films made well over $200 million each for Universal at the box-office alone.
