Avengers: Infinity War (2018) (1 Viewer)

[Jonathan Perregaux]

Holy crap...

I do have faith in the fellers who gave us The Winter Soldier and Civil War, but I still hope they spent at least a few bucks ensuring the script was well-written first.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

My thought is that there isn't a lot of real sourcing going on in that article, or even in the article that it's plagiarizing from. A co-owner of the studio facility in Georgia has allegedly said that there's a billion dollar production going on at the studio. First, that's not specific to Marvel, it could be referring to anything. Second, if it is referring to Marvel, they're shooting several productions in addition to the next two Avengers movies (only one of which is "Infinity Wars") - it wouldn't surprise me if the total budget for all of the Marvel movies filmed there equaled that.

In general, the Marvel budgets are around $200 million a movie, plus about the same in marketing and promotion. It's theoretically possible that they could at least claim to have spent $500 million making the next two Avengers movies, and that much again in promotional costs. But I highly doubt that they're spending $1 billion specifically at that studio lot.

 

[TravisR]

I'm sure they'll be ludicrously expensive but $1 billion seems like a stretch. How would they ever generate a profit if the movies cost that much?

 

[dpippel]

$500 million each including the advertising budgets perhaps? Still a lot of clams.

 

[TravisR]

Second, if it is referring to Marvel, they're shooting several productions in addition to the next two Avengers movies (only one of which is "Infinity Wars") - it wouldn't surprise me if the total budget for all of the Marvel movies filmed there equaled that.

It might even be 4 movies. I'd imagine that part of the reason that they're shooting two Avengers movies together is to cut costs so I have a real hard time believing that each one is running $500 million.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I agree, I doubt that number - on the other hand, it's not hard to believe that Marvel/Disney will claim a $250 million budget on the picture, and another $200 million in advertising expenses - I believe that's what they've claimed for Civil War.

 

[Sam Favate]

Also, "a billion dollar movie" could refer to the movie's overall take. As in, "that new Star Wars film is a billion dollar movie." Marvel's had a few of those.

Like I said, highly unlikely anyone is spending that kind of money
on a production.

 

[Carabimero]

Dr. Strange has one of the Infinity Stones...

 

[Sean Bryan]

I find this a little hard to believe: A $1 billion budget for the next two Avengers movies?

http://mcuexchange.com/avengers-infinity-war-will-allegedly-budget-1-billion/

Thoughts?

That's a goodly sum.

At first glance, it seems crazy high. But then I've read that the budget for Batman v Superman was around $400M. So $500M per movie isn't too far off considering the salaries for such a huge cast. I think RDJ alone gets $50M per Marvel movie now that he's past his original contract.

 

[Sean Bryan]

But $500M per movie still seems more like it is including the advertising budget.

 

[Bryan^H]

I think RDJ alone gets $50M per Marvel movie now that he's past his original contract.

Holy crow

 

[dpippel]

Holy crow

Yeah, and he might be starting to enter Johnny Depp/Jack Sparrow territory with his Tony Stark/Iron Man, but he has made Marvel a *ton* of money and deserves whatever they're paying him IMO.

 

[Bryan^H]

Yeah, and he might be starting to enter Johnny Depp/Jack Sparrow territory with his Tony Stark/Iron Man, but he has made Marvel a *ton* of money and deserves whatever they're paying him IMO.

I agree, but still that is a lot of money for one movie.

 

[Sean Bryan]

Found these interesting:

http://variety.com/2015/film/news/robert-downey-jr-highest-paid-actor-world-1201557060/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/avengers--infinity-war-part-1/robert-downey-jr-200-million-salary/

http://moneynation.com/robert-downey-jr-marvel-money/

The last article seems more realistic, but, as it illustrates, know one really knows.

 

[Sam Favate]

Kevin Feige Teases A Cosmic 'New Age' Beyond 'Avengers: Infinity War'

http://mcuexchange.com/kevin-feige-teases-beyond-avengers-infinity-war/

While I have to admit this all sounds very exciting, I am a bit let down that it seems to diminish our chances of getting a Black Widow movie. I wonder if Scarlet Johansson would bring her character to Netflix?

 

[Josh Steinberg]

While I have to admit this all sounds very exciting, I am a bit let down that it seems to diminish our chances of getting a Black Widow movie. I wonder if Scarlet Johansson would bring her character to Netflix?

I'm not sure that one has anything to do with the other - at the time Johansson began portraying the Black Widow, Marvel released only one film per year. This year, for the first time, it'll be three films, and they may up that number even higher in future years. They're going to have to lay groundwork for characters other than the Phase One characters we already know and love, and I think this is merely part of that.

As to Netflix, I can't imagine it happening. She currently gets paid $10-20 million per movie; there's no way that a television budget can compete with that. It's not a case like Hayley Atwell and Agent Carter, where the actress wasn't considered a major star and therefore was available and affordable for a series.

 

[Sam Favate]

As to Netflix, I can't imagine it happening. She currently gets paid $10-20 million per movie; there's no way that a television budget can compete with that. It's not a case like Hayley Atwell and Agent Carter, where the actress wasn't considered a major star and therefore was available and affordable for a series.

Oh, I don't see it happening either. Johansson is the actress with the most successful box office ever or something like that. She'll continue to push for a feature and I hope she gets it. The actors on Netflix are all very good, but none of them are superstars.

What I meant was that if the next phase of Marvel films are to be "cosmic," that doesn't appear to include a spy thriller (another genre Marvel has yet to do!) that would naturally be a Black Widow movie. IIRC, Joss Whedon once expressed interest in a BW solo film after Avengers 2, but now that he's tied up with Batgirl, it's unlikely to move forward with him.

But who knows? Marvel always has several different types of movies happening at once, so anything is possible. It's been a long time since they had one of those presentations where they laid out what they were doing for the next 5 years or so.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Right, the last presentation was to lay out Phase 3, which is scheduled through either 2019 or 2020. We'll probably get a presentation about Phase 4 after Avengers: Infinity Wars is released.

I don't think Phase 4 will be entirely cosmic. But we also don't know if all of the Avengers will survive Infinity Wars and its untitled sequence. They may be intentionally holding back an announcement because revealing future titles might spoil films that haven't yet come out. Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. have both made it clear that they don't intend to do Marvel movies forever, though in recent years they've walked that back a tiny bit - but it's possible that one or both of their characters could be killed off in one of the Avengers movies if they decline to sign new contracts.

I don't think they're in any way signalling an end to earthbound stories. But I think they are saying that they intending to have more than one cosmic movie per phase (Phase 2 only had one), and need a plan to do so. Reading between the lines, about their choice of James Gunn to oversee that, it sounds like Guardians 3 will be the last James Gunn-directed Guardians film that features the lineup we know. Whether this means some of those characters will die, or that perhaps they'll be spun off into solo movies, or team up with new heroes, I think Marvel is trying to capitalize on the current popularity of Guardians and James Gunn to keep people interested in something they potential worried people won't care about. The studio was concerned that the first Guardians movie wouldn't find an audience - now that they have it, and since they have the attention of Guardians fans with the new movie about to opening, I think they're just trying to keep that audience engaged.

Unlike, say, Paramount, which releases a Star Trek movie and then doesn't talk about a sequel for a few years, and then is shocked when they have no momentum carrying from one release to the next. Marvel is genius and keeping the momentum going between films.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

With that Feige quote, I think he was just talking about Guardians Vol. 3 and not the next phase of the MCU as a whole.

Certain characters fit better into that cosmic side of the MCU than others: Guardians of the Galaxy (obviously), Thor, Captain Marvel and to a lesser extent Doctor Strange. But I would be really disappointed if they didn't balance that out with more grounded Earth-based heroes like Spider-Man and Captain America.

 

[Sean Bryan]

I think I remember reading a few years back that Feige had aspirations of developing a Marvel "Cosmic" Cinematic Universe that, while still in the MCU, would be its own thing mostly separate from the Earth-bound MCU stories. So maybe separate cosmic based series like Guardians, Nova, Quasar, etc... (Captain Marvel would likely overlap) which could build to its own cosmic crossover event type film. I haven't heard anything more about that in the last couple of years other than Guardians Vol. 2 development stuff, but it seems now we are getting more info that they are moving in this direction (with Gunn being involved with the development of Marvel Cosmic.

But I don't have the slightest doubt that they will still be developing and building (and evolving) their Earth-based MCU films as well. The landscape will likely just be different from how it all started.

Ant-Man & The Wasp is between Infinity War and Avengers 4, but unless there is some disaster with its execution or Lang dies in A4 we should still expect "Ant-Man 3" in phase 4. Same for Black Panther and Doctor Strange. Strange is for sure getting a second installment in Phase 4. And unless Black Panther crashes and burns, we should expect a series of moves based on him as well in phases 4&5. We know Sony is absolutely making a series of Spider-Man movies using the "official MCU Spidey" (hopefully they continue to use Marvel Studios to produce). Maybe the template of what they consider a "Phase" will evolve, but they'll still have lots of stories to tell on Earth.

So Earth-Bound Phases 4, 5 & 6 built around Doctor Strange, Ant-Man & The Wasp, Black Panther, Spider-Man, Captain Marvel (bridging with Marvel Cosmic), and with lesser involvement of the classic big guns who are still alive after IW and A4 seems most likely. But in addition, Marvel Studios will have grown to now have a separate (but related) series of cosmic films. That's something to get excited about.