With The Fate of the Furious out in theaters now, it has a long road ahead of it if Universal intends on getting any profit out of this eighth film in the Fast and Furious franchise. Looking at its budget, it is at 250 million dollars. That is a far cry from the original's 38 million in 2001. Then again, they didn't build up the ante of being more than just street racing and working for the cops and FBI for the first few films. Even though since they have made huge success since the fourth one, Fast and Furious, are we getting to that realm that a 300 million dollar budget is inevitable?
Part of me thinks now we're heading towards that root. I'm more inclined to believe the thought process of Jay Chandrasekhar that we need those 20 million dollar budget films. From Back to the Future and Rain Man to Home Alone and Aladdin, these were movies that were able to succeed with decent budgets and give massive profits from a different era of film. I really don't know if you can justify Fate of the Furious' budget, but I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of cars if they weren't digitized (which they probably were) were destroyed in production with multiple takes. If you look at the commercials, they show some big damage with stuff like a wrecking ball and guiding a missile towards another car.
You look at comic book movies and it's hard to justify having these budgets since The Dark Knight Rises and The Avengers being over 200 million. Sure, there are scenes that make sense to see why, but you have to wonder how much of this is going to the actors. Some people don't realize that behind the scenes, there is always some deal being made to where you get someone to appear in the film you want. Sometimes, they accept or reject and go somewhere else. It's really baffling and eventually these Marvel and DC films are going to crumble and hurt themselves and the companies that distribute (Disney and WB) if people grow tired of these films. Look at the last Ninja Turtles movie. Not even having throwbacks to the 80s cartoon helped it at the box office. There are exceptions like Deadpool and the latest Wolverine films, but those are rarities.
Animated films are something I wouldn't be surprised would get 300 million dollar budgets, but it seems like mostly Disney products would be the first if it gets to that. I wouldn't rule it out entirely, but I think a lot of companies know the risks. Even Disney has mellowed out a little bit since 2010 when Tangled came out that November and had a 260 million dollar budget. It barely two times its budget all together worldwide. And it's not like it had all sorts of big name actors in it, either. Either way, they trimmed down a bit to 150-165 million for their other original films. Frozen and Zootopia topped at 150 mil while Wreck-It Ralph and Big Hero 6 were at 165 mil. The Pixar stuff varies, so it's hard to know what the budget is going to be for those. Since Toy Story 3, they have had mostly 200 million dollar budgets. The brand name can only get you so far, but we'll have to see when Cars 3 comes out in June and other other sequels the next few years like Toy Story 4 and The Incredibles 2.
Maybe it might not happen during the end of the 2010s, but the idea of a budget of 300 million could be seen in the 2020s. Film companies are going to have a tough time getting profits if it becomes reality. Hopefully it doesn't.
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