Captain America: Brave New World is already set up to fail

Disney is no stranger to inflated production budgets for its films and television series. But the one attached to Marvel's Captain America: Brave New World is sure to raise some eyebrows.

Last week, new reports claimed that the production budget for Captain America: Brave New World has ballooned to upwards of $350M-$375M. The latest figure comes from World of Reel — so take the rumor with a grain of salt — but the struggles surrounding the production of Captain America: Brave New World are well-documented.

Following negative test scores and an overall underwhelming reaction from Marvel with an early cut of the film, extensive reshoots were ordered with reshoots on three major action sequences filmed from May to August 2024. The result wasn't just the movie being pushed back to February 2025, but an extra $75M to $100M tacked on to the production.

Captain America: Brave New World was already an expensive film to begin with. It reportedly had an initial budget of $275M before reshoots began. With the additional reshoots, it's now estimated to be around $350M-$375M.

This doesn't even include marketing expenses for the movie. When you factor in marketing, you're looking at a total spend of $450M. That's just unsustainable.

It's not realistic for Disney to expect a movie to be profitable with these kind of costs associated. Unless it's a billion-dollar box office hit — which I doubt it will be given Marvel's box office struggles of late — Captain America: Brave New World is already set up to fail.

And it pains me to say this because I actually like Anthony Mackie as Captain America. I'll always love Chris Evans' Steve Rogers, but Mackie's Sam Wilson brings an interesting dynamic to the character that I would've loved to see properly explored. We got a taste of it in the Disney+ miniseries The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but this was Sam Wilson's first full-fledged film, and the first solo Captain America movie since 2016's Captain America: Civil War.

To put the shocking price tag for Brave New World into perspective, 2016's Captain America: Civil War, which felt like more of a superhero Avengers-style team-up, had a production budget of $250M. 2011's The First Avenger and 2014's The Winter Soldier had production budgets of $140M and $170M, respectively. These, to me, feel much more in line with what a movie like Brave New World should cost.

As I've said countless times before, Marvel and Disney need to start reigning in their production costs. $350M on a solo Captain America movie — or heck, any movie for that matter — just isn't sustainable. Don't be surprised if the movie doesn't break even.

Captain America: Brave New World kicks off Marvel's 2025 movie slate. It's set to hit theaters on February 14, 2025.