Report Says Captain America 4 Has Astronomical Budget

Movies

In a time when Marvel’s movies tend not to be big hits, Marvel keeps making new ones that really, really need to be big hits. The latest is Captain America: Brave New World, the long-delayed and extensively reshot film starring Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson. According to “a contact” reporting to Word of Reel,  the film originally had a budget of $275 million, but with the reshoots, it has ballooned by “anywhere between $75-100M,” meaning it will now have costs totaling $350-375 million. That’s more than any of the other Captain America movies – the ones that had Captain America in them, as well as other beloved MCU characters like Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark and Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow – even adjusted for inflation. Word of Reel’s source says the reshoots are “like they’re shooting a brand new movie.” Captain America: Brave New World is scheduled to arrive in theaters on February 14, 2025.

Dear Lord, this movie is set to lose Marvel and Disney a bundle. That budget is insane for a film starring a side character who’s never led a movie before. It’s also unnecessary; why wouldn’t they take a page from Captain America: The Winter Soldier (and basic logic) and make a lower-stakes adventure to keep the costs down for a film starring an unproven lead? I find this report believable because the reshoots were scheduled to take place over four to five months, and they hired another actor, Giancarlo Esposito, to play a new villain. That amount of time suggests they’re essentially remaking the movie, and that’s going to cost a lot of money. Those reshoots are Marvel and Disney’s fault for making an unwatchable movie the first time, but even factoring that in, they have to see how out of hand this has gotten. Also, this almost certainly doesn’t include the marketing and distribution budgets or the interest accrued from postponing the movie for so long. This is going to have to make at least close to $1 billion to make its money back, and that seems out of reach at the moment. They must be praying that Deadpool & Wolverine creates a rising tide that lifts all boats, but I don’t think it will; Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 didn’t help The Marvels. Marvel is going to have to make a sharp turn back to movies people want with characters people like (and it would help if they were actually good again), or they’re going to be stuck down the hole they dug themselves into permanently.