With its stellar cast featuring about 20 leading, world-famous actors, expansive storyline requiring copious amounts of pricey CGI and not to mention all that publicity, it stands to reason that Avengers: Infinity War is the most expensive Marvel movie ever made up to this point. It turns out, though, that this isn’t actually the case.
That said, we’re not claiming Infinity War was a cheap film to produce. According to British financial documents acquired by Forbes, the budget came in at an eye-watering $321.2 million. But if you think that’s a lot of moolah, then check out how much Disney apparently forked out for the second Avengers film, Age of Ultron: a positively titanic $495.2 million.
This number makes it the most expensive Hollywood movie ever made, as the previous record holder was 2011’s Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Things, which had a gross budget of $410 million. Still, it seems Disney ultimately knew what they were doing in coughing up so much cash, as Ultron earned them back $1.4 billion at the worldwide box office.
With this sort of money at stake, however, you can see how things might have become fraught on set. Marvel Studios usually have a reputation as being supportive of their directors, but Joss Whedon’s previously revealed that he felt like he was fighting a battle against the studio’s execs on the sequel. In fact, he was so “exhausted” by the whole experience that he hasn’t worked with Marvel since.
Likewise, Avengers: Infinity War proved to be worth every penny, as it’s currently breaking numerous box office records – it’s estimated to finish up with a mighty $1.8 billion gross. Even though it’s an even bigger production than Age of Ultron, it does seem as if the behind the scenes process was in some ways less stressful. After all, the Russo brothers sound committed to working with Marvel for many more movies to come – which is perfectly fine with us.
