Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania was supposed to kick off Phase 5 in style. Instead, the movie largely disappointed fans; wasting Kang the Conqueror on a battle with Scott Lang was a mistake on Marvel Studios' part, as was the decision to rely on The Volume in bringing the Quantum Realm to life.
Fans spent years waiting to finally explore the subatomic reality, only for it to be deemed bland, forgettable, and lacking in originality.
However, if you thought Marvel Studios was saving money by using The Volume, think again, as Forbes has managed to access the UK government's "Audio-Visual Expenditure Credit." That gives productions like the Ant-Man threequel a cash reimbursement of up to 25.5% of the money they spend in the country.
It's said Marvel Studios went over budget by spending a whopping $131.9 million on post-production, bringing the movie's spending up to a whopping $326.6 million.
As the site explains, "Movie budgets are usually a closely guarded secret as studios tend to absorb the cost of individual films in their overall expenses and don't itemize the cost of each one. Films shot in the United Kingdom are exceptions to this rule."
"The filings reveal its $326.6 million costs which are a staggering 63.3% higher than the estimate from Variety which claimed that Quantumania had a 'production budget of $200 million.'"
While the Disney-owned Marvel Studios received a $50.6 million reimbursement, it still spent $276 million making Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania. After it earned a disappointing $476.1 million at the worldwide box office, Disney would have received an estimated $238 million as a studio typically only gets 50% of box office receipts.
That means the studio made a $38 million loss in terms of box office revenue. Whether they clawed some of that back with merchandise and Digital/Blu-ray sales is unclear, though this is by no means a good result.
Disney CEO Bob Iger appeared to address Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania's failings when he said, "Sequels typically worked well for us," he acknowledged. "Do you need a third and a fourth, for instance? Or is it time to turn to other characters?"
"There’s nothing in any way inherently off in terms of the Marvel brand," Iger added. "I think we just have to look at what characters and stories we’re mining, and you look at the trajectory of Marvel over the next five years, you’ll see a lot of newness. We’re going to turn back to the Avengers franchise, but with a whole different set of Avengers."
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania is now streaming on Disney+.