Why The Marvels Budget Is So High

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Summary

The high budget of "The Marvels" can be attributed to its cosmic story, which requires extensive use of digital environments and CGI effects due to the inability to film in space.
The film's ensemble cast of three lead actresses and the need to give each character a viable story further contributes to the inflated budget, as setting up future MCU appearances in a space-infused setting requires additional resources.
VFX work, particularly for the characters' light-based powers, is another factor that drives up the budget, as it necessitates heavy use of CGI enhancements and visual effects. This trend of increasing budgets for superhero films meant that the higher cost of "The Marvels," was all but guaranteed.

The Marvels' budget has reportedly been revealed, leading many to question why the figure is so high in comparison to other superhero projects. As The Marvels' November 10, 2023, release date moves ever closer, more information about the Phase 5 installment is slowly being revealed. One of these reveals pertains to how much the film cost to produce, a growing point of debate among superhero movies of late.
Initially, it was reported that The Marvels' MCU production budget sat at around $130 million, a refreshingly low budget for a tentpole MCU film. However, a report from Forbes revealed that the actual budget for the film is around $270 million, a figure that applies itself much more closely to blockbuster superhero films in 2023 that makes The Marvels the fourth-most expensive Marvel Studios movie yet and the highest-costing non-Avengers film. With such a number finally being confirmed, many have been wondering why The Marvels' budget is so inflated, with several aspects of the film providing the answers as to why.
Your browser does not support the video tag. The Marvels' Story Means It Needs A Higher Budget

Firstly, The Marvels' MCU story is enough to bump up the production costs of the film. Like other high-costing productions like the Guardians of the Galaxy or Thor movies, the Captain Marvel series is full of cosmic adventures. This requires much more in the way of budget given that filming in space is obviously not a possibility. Rather than shooting on location using real sets, props, costumes, and environments, the MCU's cosmic movies have to inherently rely more on digital environments, CGI enhancements, and sound stages.
Another reason why The Marvels' budget is so high is the fact that it is essentially a team-up movie. The film will bring together three heroes in the form of Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel, and Photon with each character needing their own viable story as part of The Marvels' cast of characters. On top of the added costs of paying three lead actresses instead of one, all three characters will need to be given competent stories to set up future MCU appearances that also happen to be space-infused. As such, The Marvels' story means the film's budget already has to be higher than the more grounded, singular-focused MCU productions.
The Marvels' VFX Needs Mean Its Budget Needs To Be Higher

Another element of The Marvels that will have made up a significant chunk of the film's budget is the VFX work. As is the case with the majority of superhero movies of late, The Marvels will require a great deal of CGI. This has already been explored in regard to the film's space setting which will require a lot of green screen/volume work, as well as CGI creations like space stations, spaceships, otherworldly creatures, and so on. Furthermore, the titular trio's powers also require heavy amounts of VFX.
All three main characters in The Marvels have light-based powers. This differs from heroes like Shang-Chi (before he acquired the Ten Rings), Black Widow, or Hawkeye who need minimal CGI enhancements to sell their abilities or enhance their action scenes. With The Marvels' though, Captain Marvel's flight and energy beams, Kamala Khan's light constructs, and Monica Rambeau's spectrum-based abilities all call for VFX to be utilized much more heavily meaning an inflated budget for the film.
The MCU's Budget Trend Means The Marvels High Bar Was Inevitable

The last reason as to why The Marvels' budget is so high links to the growing trend of superhero movies costing obscene amounts of money to produce. While this has proven to be the case with the likes of Black Adam and The Flash from DC of late, MCU movies have also had increasingly large budgets in recent years. Another recent cosmic production, 2022's Thor: Love and Thunder, had a production cost of $250 million. Similarly, 2023's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 also cost the same amount which means The Marvels' budget was seemingly inevitable.
Since superhero movies became immensely popular in modern pop culture, the budgets for each production began increasing. With the Golden Age of superhero movies arguably coming between 2014 and 2019, the success of each installment was all but guaranteed. In Phase 3 alone, the MCU had six out of 11 movies cross the $1 billion mark. This continued success meant that studios could justify giving productions higher budgets as their success was almost a given. This contributed to films in Phases 4 and 5, like The Marvels, receiving increasingly high figures to produce each film as they were mostly expected to recoup these costs and then some.
On top of this growing trend, superhero movies have cost more to produce in recent years as they are simply more grand in scale. In comparison to earlier efforts like Iron Man or Captain America: The First Avenger which were still based somewhat in reality, the more cosmic, epic nature of recent superhero films has called for higher budgets. From the increasing success of cosmic adventures to the growing trend of the MCU's production costs, it is certainly no surprise that The Marvels' budget almost rivals those of the most expensive MCU movies.
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