Disney made an estimated $296.4 million loss at the box office on just two of its Marvel superhero movies in 2023 according to analysis of recently-released financial statements.
They reveal that the cost of making The Marvels and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania came to a staggering $762.4 million (£609.3 million) before Disney banked $124.9 million (£99.4 million) in government incentives bringing its net spending on the movies down to $637.5 million. They both bombed at the box office.
According to industry analyst Box Office Mojo, the movies grossed a combined $682.2 million with theaters typically retaining 50% of the takings and the remainder going to the studio. This reflects the findings of film industry consultant Stephen Follows who interviewed 1,235 film professionals in 2014 and concluded that, according to studios, theaters keep 49% of the takings on average. It would give Disney just $341.1 million from The Marvels and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. No expense was spared on them.
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Disney does not publicly discuss how much it spends on specific productions and did not respond to a request for comment. Budgets are usually a closely-guarded secret. This is because studios combine the costs of individual pictures in their overall expenses and their filings don’t itemize how much was spent on each one. Films made in the UK are exceptions and both The Marvels and Quantumania fall into this category.
Studios shoot in the UK to benefit from its Audio-Visual Expenditure Credit (AVEC) which gives them a cash reimbursement of up to 25.5% of the money they spend in the country.
To qualify for the reimbursement, at least 10% of the production costs need to relate to activities in the UK. In order to demonstrate this to the UK government, studios tend to set up a separate production company in the country for each movie they make there.
The companies have to file financial statements which shine a spotlight on their budgets. They reveal everything from the headcount and salaries to the level of reimbursement and the total costs. Studios directly receive the revenue from theater tickets, streaming and Blu-ray sales and carry the costs of marketing as the function of the UK companies is purely making the movies.
I’m sorry, did I just read that DISNEY received $125 Million in government incentives to make a comic book movie?
Studios shoot in the UK to benefit from its Audio-Visual Expenditure Credit (AVEC) which gives them a cash reimbursement of up to 25.5% of the money they spend in the country.
It’s not like they were handed a blank check, they spent hundreds of millions more paying people and buying stuff in the UK to get that rebate
That’s just gouvernement incentives with extra steps.
this only accounts for box office take. when you add in streaming, tv and other broadcast rights, home video, merchandising. they won’t be ‘losing money’ on these two ‘bombs’.
Who knew over saturating tired IP would result in a loss of profit?
Wow! That’s like a sixth of two billion!
No shit. What a bullshit manipulation of numbers by people thrusting their hate boners. “Almost $300m” would have sufficed.
God they had to dig so deep to get these numbers. Looking up tax records? Like Jesus Christ let it go.
This analysis isn’t acknowledging the important fact that The Marvel’s was dogwater in its best moments and pure cringe at all other times.
I liked the Marvels =(
Meanwhile, I’ve heard such bad things about Quantumania that I haven’t watched it yet lol.
I’m a 40 year old dude and thought it was fun. Not my favourite, but it clearly wasn’t made for me. I feel like it’s the kind of thing that will really connect with young girls and later on it will be looked back on fondly.
Dads, watch it with your daughters. You won’t regret it.
Quantumania was fun too. Could’ve been better, but don’t believe all the hate.
I agree on quantamania, it’s a fun turn your brain off movie. Introduces some cool concepts to the universe and has some interesting visuals. Marvel movies aren’t meant to be your forest gumps, people seem to forget that sometimes.
I enjoyed the Marvels but I rate the Captain Marvel highly.
I thought Quantumania was pretty pointless, doubly now Kang has been dropped.
I liked Quantumania. Sometimes you just want something fun and it delivered.
I also liked Quantumania. It wasn’t perfect, but it wasn’t “Thor 4” level of bad either.
Hm… Maybe I’ll give it a try sometime then.
That’s kind of how I felt about The Marvels and the other Ant-Man movies. They weren’t mind-blowing, but they were mostly a fun time. Not too long, well paced, pretty light hearts with some creative action scenes that didn’t hit Shang Chi or Winter Soldier heights, but we’re entertaining enough.
That’s completely unfair. There was really good stuff in the first act, the writers played into the tension between the three Marvels quite well. Everything after that was boring and by-the-book, but it wasn’t bad.
Awww no, poor thing… Does Disney need a hug?
They’ve apparently got like $6 billion in cash reserves so they can afford the odd stinker.
Those losses won’t be real losses, because they’ll just pay everyone less on the next movie. They’ll be tax man losses. We haven’t made any money, oh poor us…
Genuinely suspect that the people in charge of the money on these projects are stealing a good chunk of it.
“Stealing”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgYYOUC10aM
Much of the budget is megabucks wages for the stars and director and then enormous amounts on “distribution” aka adverts.
