Something about The Marvels having one of the smallest budgets ever for a Marvel Studios film just didn't pass the smell test.
Spending on projects across film and television was seemingly out of control during the Bob Chapek era of Disney, prompting the recently returned Bob Iger to publicly state that things would be different moving forward. Of course, by the time Iger made these comments, The Marvels had already wrapped filming.
So when Vanity Fair published a piece on the 33rd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), asserting that The Marvels had a budget of just $130 million, many Marvel fans had a hard time believing it.
And it turns out, those doubters were right as Forbes has dug into company filings and discovered that Marvel actually spent $270 million (over 2x what was initially reported by Vanity Fair) on The Marvels. After filming in the U.K. and factoring in a $55 million tax credit, that brought the actual budget down to $219.8 million.
Filming on The Marvels commenced on May 31, 2021, and wrapped on May 13, 2022. Reshoots commenced in August 2022 with some reports stating that the film was undergoing a massive overhaul (something similar was reported on Secret Invasion).
With the increased budget, it's now critical for The Marvels to repeat the box office success of Captain Marvel. What are the odds of that happening in this new, post-Covid box office landscape? Let us know in the comment section below.
After a series of release date changes, The Marvels is currently slated to hit theaters on November 10, 2023.
The Marvels will star Brie Larson (Short Term 12, Fast X) as Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel, Teyonah Parris (The Photograph, Candyman) as Monica Rambeau/Photon, Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan / Ms. Marvel, Zawe Ashton (Not Safe For Work, Nocturnal Animals) as Dar-Benn.
Also appearing in supporting roles are Gary Lewis (His Dark Materials, The Bay), Park Seo-joon (Itaewon Class, Concrete Utopia), and Samuel L. Jackson (Secret Invasion).
Teaming up changes everything everyone.
Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel has reclaimed her identity from the tyrannical Kree and taken revenge on the Supreme Intelligence. But unintended consequences see Carol shouldering the burden of a destabilized universe. When her duties send her to an anomalous wormhole linked to a Kree revolutionary, her powers become entangled with that of Jersey City super-fan, Kamala Khan aka Ms. Marvel, and Carol’s estranged niece Captain Monica Rambeau. Together, this unlikely trio must team-up and learn to work in concert to save the universe as ‘The Marvels.'