Chris Hemsworth is finally back for a fourth adventure as the God of Thunder in Thor: Love and Thunder, this time with Natalie Portman by his side and holding his former Mjolnir. Sadly, despite the initial hype, reception to the film has turned out mixed. Reviews have pushed the movie down to a 68% on Rotten Tomatoes, and it even received the second-worst CinemaScore for an MCU project.
Even with all of that, Love and Thunder is still performing well at the box office. It even received the fifth-best Thursday opening for all of the MCU, sitting at $29 million, just below Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ $36 million.
Now, alongside a report revealing the project’s estimated weekend opening at the box office, it seems that the movie’s production budget has been revealed—and it’s bigger than one might expect.
Thor’s Most Expensive MCU Adventure
Variety reported that Thor: Love and Thunder, which is projected to open north of $135 million in its opening weekend domestically, has a massive estimated budget of $250 million.
This would make the newest Chris Hemsworth adventure tied for the fourth-most expensive Marvel Studios movie to date. As it stands, according to The Numbers, the current estimated top ten most expensive MCU budgets come in the following films:
- Avengers: Endgame - $400 Million
- Avengers: Age of Ultron - $365 Million
- Avengers: Infinity War - $300 Million
- Thor: Love and Thunder and Captain America: Civil War - $250 Million
- The Avengers - $225 Million
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Eternals, Black Widow, Black Panther, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and Iron Man 2 - $200 Million
- Iron Man - $186 Million
- Thor: Ragnarok - $180 Million
- Captain Marvel - $175 Million
- Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Iron Man 2 - $170 Million
Both 2015's Ant-Man and 2018's Ant-Man and the Wasp are tied for the lowest budget of any MCU movie, both sitting at an estimated production budget of $130 million. Just above that is 2008's The Incredible Hulk at $137.5 million.
Did Love and Thunder Look Like $250 Million?
Many might look at this total and think to themselves, "that movie certainly didn’t look like $250 million." Given some of the VFX work seen in the project, it’s not hard to blame that line of thinking.
Love and Thunder’s use of The Volume technology led to terribly flat and awkward backdrops which ended up simply looking like there was a giant screen behind the character. That’s not to mention some of the sketchy classical CGI like Thor’s new screaming goats.
So, if the special effects weren’t up to snuff for most audiences, what was the money used for? Well, lots of that total is probably going towards talent.
The film’s cast is simply stacked with big names. There’s Chris Hemsworth, the entire Guardians of the Galaxy team, Natalie Portman in her grand return, and A-Lister Christian Bale—those names don’t come cheap. Those names don’t even include the cut cameos, such as Lena Headey, who was paid $7 million for a part that never made it to the final product.
Thor: Love and Thunder is now playing in theaters worldwide.
