Many Marvel fans want to know how large The Fantastic Four: First Steps budget is, especially in comparison to Superman 2025, Thunderbolts*, and Captain America: Brave New World. Details about the movie’s production budget have been surprisingly thin, with Marvel being rather tight-lipped on how much money was spent on the reboot. There have been some estimates made on the Fantastic Four 2025 budget so far, and there have been some hints from the film’s producers. Here’s what we know so far on how much the upcoming Fantastic Four movie cost to make and what it will need to bring in at the box office to break even.
How big is the Fantastic Four 2025 budget?
It is estimated that The Fantastic Four: First Steps budget is conservatively between $210 and $250 million without adding any marketing costs.
This is largely based on the production costs for Marvel’s other two major films in 2025. Both Thunderbolts* and Captain America: Brave New World cost $180 million each, which is roughly half of the budget of Avengers: Endgame that was around $356 to $400 million. But considering that Fantastic Four 2025 is easily the biggest movie that Marvel is producing this year, we’ve hiked up some of the numbers.
Still, we’ve kept the figures relatively low for several reasons. The first is that the movie, which was principally filmed in England at Pinewood Studios and other locations in Spain, has required relatively few reshoots, if any. That certainly keeps the production costs down as compared to, say, Superman 2025 that needed a few days of reshoots (though director James Gunn said that these were more pickup shots than anything else).
The second is that Fantastic Four 2025 producer Grant Curtis mentioned in early June during a set interview with Collider that the film was made with the budget very much in mind. He said, “There is, you know, a financial component to that narrative. And so you have to play both, but that’s also kind of what we all do for a living, is try to tell the biggest, coolest narrative possible on a fiscally responsible scale. And we’ve been able to do that.” That suggests that the production cost is not as massive as those for Marvel’s other films.
At any rate, we’ll need to wait for official reports from the UK government on any tax breaks the movie received for filming at Pinewood Studios for us to receive a precise figure for the budget. (That is, unless some insiders can finally drop some numbers.)
How much does Fantastic Four 2025 need to make at the box office to break even?
The Fantastic Four: First Steps will likely need to make somewhere in the ballpark of $450 to $500 million at the global box office to break even.
The rough estimate for the break-even point for a film in general is 1.5 to 2.5 times its production cost, and for summer blockbusters it’s more like 2.5 times. For comparison, both Thunderbolts* and Captain America: Brave New World (based on their $180 million budget) needed to make around $450 million at the box office to recoup their costs.
Unfortunately, neither of them quite made this projected goal, though they were fairly close. Captain America: Brave New World grossed around $415 million, while Thunderbolts made about $381 million, so there are high hopes that Fantastic Four 2025 will be Marvel’s first successful hit this year.
Fortunately, the movie is projected to make a huge splash at the box office. Early tracking has Fantastic Four 2025 earning $125 million to $155 million for the opening weekend and raking in somewhere between $277 million and $395 million at the domestic box office. Combined with international box office sales, that figure should cross the $500 million mark easily.
