One billion dollars, will Avengers Infinity War feature Chelsea Clinton? That’s the rumored budget for Avengers Infinity War. Captain America: Civil War was made with a 250 million dollar budget and made 1.15 billion at the box office. Is Disney/Marvel Studios so confident that Avengers Infinity War will be so great that they’re willing to work with a one billion budget? If so, Avengers Infinity War will be the most expensive movie ever made.
No doubt that Avengers: Infinity War could reach a minimum of 1.3 billion dollars at the box office. That’s not the most pessimistic estimate of the movie’s potential earnings given the lukewarm reception of Batman V Superman. Iron Man 3 made 1.2 billion dollars over a 200 million budget. They said Iron Man 3 was bad, but it’s still a decent MCU offering and still made that 1.2 billion. 1.3 billion would probably be the amount made globally if early reviews and hearsay get the better of the film, should it turn out to be bad. Everyone who has seen the past two Avengers films will surely flock to see Avengers: Infinity War as they’ve by now invested themselves in the MCU as millions of Americans have with Days of Our Lives. A more positive point would be 1.4 billion should the film sink to the level of Avengers: Age of Ultron. The point is, one billion dollars is a big amount to gamble over a possible 400 million profit (which is big) but could be way below Disney’s projections. If one billion dollars turns out to be true, the amount of hubris is amazing.
But then again, the Russo Brothers have been given the director’s chair after their successful run with Captain America: Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War. They’ve proven that they can take an ensemble cast and do something amazing with it. They consistently made more than double the money on their respective budgets and made great films. Hopefully, there won’t be much studio interference with the project nor would there be any creative friction between the Russo’s and Kevin Feige.
So why one billion? The production budget for Captain America: Civil War reached 250 million dollars. It’s basically the sequel to both Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Avengers: Age of Ultron. The cast for Civil War was extensive except several glaring exclusions, Mark Ruffalo (Hulk), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury) and Gwyneth Paltrow (Pepper Potts). Putting them all back would probably bring the budget up to 300 million dollars. Will they bring back Clark Gregg and SHIELD? They’d have to meet sometime. That would probably bring them up to 350 million plus helicarrier effects. Now, we’re not experts in cinema and effects budgets but that would probably be enough. We forgot Chris Pratt and the Guardians of the Galaxy cast. Shouldn’t they take part in the conflict? That would make 400 million at least. And lastly, Benedict Cumberbatch in his upcoming role as Doctor Strange would put the budget past 400 million.
Since Avengers: Infinity War would be the shortened version of Marvel’s original vision of a two-parter. This film will have a grand epic scope with such a huge cast concluding the Infinity stone saga they began with Captain America: The First Avenger. Double the time, double the talent fees, double the cast, double the effects, thus double the budget which brings us to 800 million dollars. Avengers Infinity War could be largely set in outer space but if the battle spills over to the earth, will Marvel Studios give us cameos of earthbound heroes Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Quake and Ghost Rider? We really hope so then that would justify a very large budget indeed.
So the budget one billion budget for Avengers: Infinity War is not far-fetched. An 800-million production budget to support a potential 3.5-hour runtime, a ridiculously large all-star ensemble cast and a large group of extras which would probably be composed of Chitauri or Kree and a bunch of Asgardians would be reasonable. Add another 200 plus million for an extensive marketing campaign for a film that concludes almost a decade of setting up. And if the film does turn out to be a hit, it could easily reach a gross of 1.8 to 2 billion dollars! Avengers: Infinity War is set to make history.
Another reason for the over the top budget could be that there will be an Infinity Gauntlet plot where Thanos will be gathering the Infinity Stones. This, of course, will prove to be quite the monumental task for the Mad Titan than he figured. He is reportedly doing this to impress Death and will do this by crashing through the galaxy to collect enough souls to make her happy. Some people are very needy, and he’s there to please.
Creating a literal incarnation of Death will prove costly we can assume. So if Thanos is going to be collecting all six Infinity Stones in this film, one can assume this will be approaching the death of Vision, who gets powered up by the Mind Stone. But to operate that glove at full power every stone is needed, so someone has to suffer.
For those that read the comics you know that Thanos grew up pretty obsessed with death, so much so that he literally fell in love with its physical self aka Mistress Death. By the time he became a grown up, he was all set to wipe out life in the universe to prove his total devotion to her. He nearly accomplished this in The Infinity Gauntlet.
Big question is if Cate Blanchett will be back as Hela or will there be a new ‘interpretation’ of Death. As some women can be very hard to please, Thanos learns this lesson rather quickly. I’m a little curious to see if there’ll be a crossover with Guardians of the Galaxy to stop Thanos from his destruction. With a budget this large and a film this massive, it would make sense to see more people crossing over from the MCU like Nick Fury and maybe even Carol Danvers known to all as Captain Marvel.
Naturally, The Avengers: Infinity War people are trying to keep everything top secret, but in today’s world, that’s next to impossible.