The MCU blockbuster machine has fetched more than $23 billion worldwide.
The Marvel universe has found the right balance in continuity and creation of innovative films which build up a special bond to form a part of a coherent family.
Why do people love superhero films so much?
For one, people love the weightier themes baked in the stories. They also feel connected with characters and aspire to be like them. Not forgetting the notion that one can dodge from reality for a while and get into fantasies.
Few people know that there is so much emphasis on quality and CGI effects that brings about the best experience in Marvel movies. This makes them spend more time, and all this costs money.
Again, no superhero comes cheap. Actors like Scarlett Johansson need attractive pay upfront; in fact, about 1/4 of the budget goes to paying the actors. Success comes with a price. Unfortunately, this is not different in the Marvel world.
If you’ve watched the MCU movies in chronological order, you may have noted that the most controversial superhero movies look the most expensive. The set, costumes, props, and everything else that makes the look appealing does not come cheap!
Let’s have a look at the most expensive films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Five most expensive Marvel movies ever made
1. Avengers: Endgame- $350M
Avengers: Endgame cost so much money to make. No wonder it’s the most popular movie of all time. Three major reasons that led to the cost were the production cost spent on CGI effects, sound, etc.
The next was the amount paid to the actors. An employee who has worked for decades in a company has good negotiating power for remuneration purposes and finally the cost of advertising. Around $200M was spent on promotion. All these costs were well planned, and Marvel wasted no single coin.
2. Avengers: Infinity War-$316M
Avengers: Infinity War is the next most expensive movie ever made. But what made the price hike up? The price can be attributed to the production costs of employees. This was to ensure the operations were seamless.
Actors like Scarlett Johansson and Robert Downey are some of the major characters that required big paychecks. Considering that someone like Downey was the first to begin his superheroism in MCU. You can imagine how he had great negotiating power for a better contract in the Infinity War.
According to some reports from the UK, Infinity War had to spend about $2.9 M to hire staff, though the amount was exclusive of other self-employed workers in the movie.
3. The Avengers–$220M
The Avengers is where superheroes like Thor, Iron Man, and Ant-man fought together as a team to fight back Loki from endangering humanity. These actors never came cheap.
With a production budget of $220million, the film has already earned $654.8M within its first two weekends after the global release. Most of the cost resulted from the marketing campaign that was around $120 M. Other costs could be attributed to distribution costs.
In fact, after the two weekends, Avengers could boast of having hit a 1 billion mark. It was the first Marvel movie with a billion-dollar threshold.
4. Avengers: Age of Ultron-$365M
Age of Ultron was able to earn over $1/4 billion worldwide. It was marked as the 5th highest-grossing film of all time.
The film earned $84.46M during its opening day in the US and Canada, totaling $191.3M for its opening weekends. This was much higher than its earnings of $5.4 on its opening day and $27.3M on the first weekend in the UK, where it was filmed. Unfortunately, on the second weekend, the earning fell by 59%.
There has been a controversial debate regarding the cost of this film, claiming that the production budget used had no official document. Another claim for high costs was that the film was shot in several countries.
5. Captain America: Civil War-$250M
Captain America: Civil War is a summer blockbuster. It has one of the most impressive box office standards. On its first opening weekend, the film earned $181.79 million.
Note that the $250 million excluded the promotion and marketing costs.
The film spent quite a lot in terms of costs to bring Robert Downey to the pasture, among other major superheroes. It also introduces others, such as a Spider and Black Panther.
However, the hike in the budget was blamed on President Kevin Geiger as he broke free of Ike Perlmutter, the Marvel Entertainment CEO, during the restructuring. There was a gigantic Marvel shake-up after the friction between the two.
Conclusion
Marvel owes its success to superheroes. But these superheroes never bloomed overnight. The Marvel Studio spent huge costs on the film’s production costs, not forgetting the use of CGI effects and actors’ remuneration.
The above movies had the most impressive budget that led to Marvel becoming one of the highest-grossing superhero movies of all time.
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