The exact budget of Avengers: Infinity War has been the subject of much debate lately, with some estimates putting it between $300-$400 million, while other folks think it might have even hit $500 million.
The pic and its currently untitled sequel also shot back-to-back, which is a remarkable feat in and of itself when you consider the sheer size of Infinity War‘s character roster. Nevertheless, Joe Russo still believes that Avengers 3 was harder due to the fact that its post-production overlapped with the filming process on Avengers 4.
Wherever the budget ended up coming in at, it’s clear that Marvel had to put out a lot of money for the movie and today, we’re learning that it cost the studio about $450,000 a day to keep things running. And even then, the film went over budget. That’s according to directors Joe and Anthony Russo, who joked that the money went towards the all-star cast.
“The cast gets all of it,” said Joe, while Anthony added, “We give most of it to Downey.”
On a more serious note, Joe explained that it really does go to the talent. Or at least, a big part of it does.
“It does break down that way where the cast does get a big percentage of it. These movies have been incredibly successful, there’s 18 of them, and typically as movies succeed, the cast can get more expensive,” the director said.
“The VFX are incredibly expensive on a movie like this, well into the hundreds of millions. So between those two, those are the largest categories that take most of the money. Then there’s just the day-to-day running of a production that can be very expensive.”
Indeed it can be, as Russo went on to say that the costs on a daily basis were in the neighborhood of $350,000-$450,000 just to keep production running. Hey, no one ever said blockbuster filmmaking was cheap, right?
Of course, Avengers: Infinity War proved to be worth every penny in the end, breaking $1.6 billion this week at the box office and now well on its way to a $1.8-$2 billion finish. It seems the Russos had a great time making the film as well, as they’re committed to working with Marvel for many more movies to come – which is perfectly fine with us.
