Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’s Massive Budget

Movies

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Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Cost Over $300 Million

A recent article from Forbes has furthered the ever-expanding revelation of just how much money Disney has been spending on their movies recently, and it continues to make what was already an abysmal 2023 box office even worse. It is well known in the industry that studios that choose to make their films in the United Kingdom receive a fairly sized reimbursement from the government as a way of enticing more filming to be done in the country. Disney has especially taken advantage of this but failed to realize that just because you get some money back doesn’t mean you can spend an insane amount on every movie you make. This is especially true when your films have consistently failed to make any real mark at the box office over the last few years. In the case of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, it is now being reported that they spent a whopping $330 million on the film without even considering the marketing costs, which, based on a budget of that size, likely came to an additional $100-$150 million. Though they received roughly $50 million back from the UK government, that still means they had a net spend of roughly $276 million. Since the film only made about $463,635,303 at the global box office, Quantumania couldn’t even make back the original budget before the marketing costs are added and long before we take into account the various splits between the studio and theaters.

Ant-Man 3 Lost Over $200 Million

When we take a look at my RCC method, which takes into account the typical marketing costs for a movie and the usual splits between the studio and theaters across the globe, the story gets even worse for Disney. With a net budget of around $276 million, Quantumania very likely cost over $400 million when you add typical marketing expenses. The movie only made about $215 million domestically, $210 million internationally (without China), and about $40 million in China. Taking into account the typical splits with the studio (55%, 40%, and 25%, respectively), it means that the total net loss for Ant-Man 3 was roughly $202 million… yikes. This means that, with the extra spending that has been revealed, the movie lost over $100 million more than what was previously thought.

Things Are Bad… and They Will Get Worse

As I have covered on my main channel for the last several months, as bad as the woes were for Disney in 2023, things are going to get worse for them as time goes on. The fact is that most of their films from their various franchises (especially live-action) have had filming done partially or primarily in the United Kingdom. As we get further removed from the initial box office releases, we in the box office space are waiting for more tax documents and filings to be uncovered and reported. As we saw when tax filings were revealed for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the film ended up costing $100 million more than initial reports indicated; we can expect many of the budgets from Disney’s biggest flops of 2023 to continue to balloon in size. Keep in mind that this new information about Ant-Man 3 means that since 2019’s Captain Marvel, the studio is running at $100 million in the red. This means that the over $600 million net profits from Avengers: Endgame and $200 million net profits from Captain Marvel have all been wiped away… and then some! Taking all of these numbers  and recent reports of the failures of Disney+ into account, it begs the question, just how much more money will they need to lose before a high-up executive is held responsible? Personally, I wouldn’t hold my breath. Ultimately, only the stockholders seem to have any chance of making a difference. If almost $1 billion in theatrical losses since 2021’s Black Widow for Marvel alone isn’t enough, I do not know what is.

For video coverage of this weekend’s box office, check out my latest video HERE.

If you want further analysis on these or any other films, check out the full charting I do over at my website. Have a wonderful rest of your day, and as always, God bless!

(If you ever want further insight into my methodology, see my previous articles HERE and HERE.)