Well, for one, I’d guess Harrison Ford’s recent paychecks alone are probably closer to that original budget than not at this point.The crazy thing about this movie is that it cost up to $300m to make, yet Raiders cost $20m, which adjusted for inflation is about $60m. That means DoD cost up to six times as much as Raiders, despite Raiders using all real sets and special effects.
I thought the whole point of CGI was to reduce cost (as well as safety for stunt people).
Where the heck did all the money go?
Ridiculous paychecks driven by Hollywood Accounting aside, I do think that if they (not just Lucasfilm, Hollywood in general) locked themselves in at $100-150 million for these blockbusters we’d see a little more ingenuity in terms of sets, set pieces, and effects.
The estimated budget of John Wick 4, for example, was $100 mil (up from $20 mil since JW1), and that has plenty of globetrotting, practical action with an international movie star mixed in with the CGI spectacle.
There’s no reason that something like this should cost that much. More than Mad Max Fury Road. More than even The Flash in the same summer (although the effects work was pretty atrocious in that).
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