Hollywood accounting is a regular practice and famously vague method used within the industry to calculate and record profits. As a result, budgetary figures and margins can often be a lot higher or lower than the numbers made public.
On an official level, the single most expensive movie ever made remains the $379 million swashbuckling epic Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, with Avengers: Age of Ultron in second place with a mammoth $365 million budget. Despite ranking third and fourth on the charts at reported costs of $356 million and $325 million, Joe Russo says Endgame and Infinity War were actually a lot more costly than that.
In an interview with Deadline where he was underlining the massive sense of pressure, expectation, and responsibility that came with rounding out the Infinity Saga, Russo revealed the true financials behind the two-part conclusion to the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s opening era, and it’s enough to make your jaw drop.
“I don’t know if these numbers have ever been accurately reported but in the case of Avengers: Endgame or Infinity War, each of those movies was $500 million plus. So this is an incredible amount of money that is being spent on these films. And you have responsibility, if you have a conscience to in some way deliver a return on that investment for the people that gave you that money.”
Even though Endgame hoovered up close to $2.8 billion at the box office, it only turned a $900 million profit. While that’s nonetheless an eye-watering amount of cash, it’s still surprisingly low comparative to the theatrical takings, and that extra $150 million in the budget offers another added explanation as to why.