A recent report indicated the production of the Snyder Cut of Justice League, which includes reshoots and new special effects, will cost $70 million. That total is significantly higher than the $55 million production budget for Joker, and comparable to those for Birds of Prey and Shazam!, which fell somewhere between $84 million and $100 million. When one considers the total budget, including the $300 million original version, that will make the Snyder Cut among the most expensive films ever produced.
By 2021, Warner Bros. will have spent at least $383 million on producing Justice League, assuming the budget for the Snyder Cut doesn't balloon. That doesn't take into account the cost of marketing.
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides remains the highest-budgeted film ever, costing $376.5 million in 2014. Adjusted for inflation, that's about $413 million. Justice League is also almost the highest budgeted superhero film of all time, edging out Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, and nearing Avengers: Age of Ultron, which had a $365 million budget in 2015, or $394 million adjusted for inflation.
The Price of The Snyder Cut
Justice League is a serious oddity. It is not a sequel to a film that grossed more than a billion dollars, like the Avengers films or Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. As a direct sequel to Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Justice League did not have the same popularity going in that the aforementioned franchises did.
It didn't make sense to make Justice League as expensive as they did, nor does it make sense to pour so much money into a new cut of a film that failed to find its audience initially. Even $70 million is a lot of money to pour into a feature for HBO Max. Bright remains one of the most expensive Netflix films, at $90 million.
Furthermore, some fans were under the impression the Snyder Cut was mostly finished, with the assumed main changes needed being effects; therefore, whatever money would be put towards the recut wouldn't be that substantial. Even in May, the Snyder Cut's budget was estimated at $30 million. This was considered as a big risk for potentially low reward, as indicated by comments from WarnerMedia Chairman Bob Greenblatt on the Recode Media podcast, which also disproved that the Snyder Cut would be far from easy.
"It isn’t as easy as going into the vault and there’s a Snyder Cut sitting there to put out," Greenblatt said. "It does not exist. Zack is actually building it, and it’s complex, including new VFX shots. It’s a radical rethinking of that movie, and it’s complicated and wildly expensive. I’ll just say I wish it was just $30 million and stop there. It’s an enormous undertaking and very complex."
Since then, the film has more than doubled the budget, despite Greenblatt's comments. With the film still being worked on, there is no telling if the budget won't increase again before release.
Can HBO Max Pull It Off?
It will be far easier for Warner Bros. to profit off Justice League in the long-term by releasing it on HBO Max. The online fan fervor for the film could lead to more people subscribing to HBO Max, which will provide long-term profits to the company, much in the same way that The Mandalorian provided Disney+ a lot of attention from mainstream consumers. However, it's unclear if this will be enough to break even.
When accounting for the marketing budget, oversees budgets, as well as theaters taking their cut, the average film needs to gross two times or two and a half times its production budget before the studio profits. Justice League, before the Snyder Cut, needed to gross at an estimated $750 million to break even, but it took in $657.9 million.
The Snyder Cut is at an advantage in that all the money earned will go straight to Warner Bros. When accounting for marketing and the loss of the theatrical cut, Zack Snyder's vision will need to earn the company an additional $200 million dollars at least to break even. If HBO Max becomes available outside the United States, the Snyder Cut might be a draw for new subscribers, thus earning the company more money. However, if it remains in the United States, it's hard to see if it will earn more subs, outside the die-hard Snyder fans, who may just pirate the film instead.
Justice League stars Ben Affleck as Batman, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Henry Cavill as Superman, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Jason Momoa as Aquaman, Ezra Miller as The Flash, Ray Fisher as Cyborg, Jeremy Irons as Alfred Pennyworth, Diane Lane as Martha Kent, Ciarán Hinds as Steppenwolf, Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor and J.K. Simmons as Commissioner Gordon. Zack Snyder's Justice League will premiere exclusively on HBO Max in early to mid-2021.