James Gunn Admits That He’s Struggling With The Budget Of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’

It’s known that Disney Marvel Studios were never stingy when it comes to the budget of their films. Considering how profitable their movies are, it’s evident that they’d be willing to throw in more money on their upcoming projects. We still remember that the production of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame (they were filmed back-to-back) cost almost a billion dollars, and that turned into almost $4.8 billion that those two movies grossed combined.

Okay, Infinity War and Endgame are still the biggest movies that Marvel Studios ever made, so it’s obvious their production budget would be higher. But, no matter how big the budget is, it can still be hard to keep all the expenses in line, at least if you ask James Gunn, who’s currently working on the production of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

Gunn recently revealed how, even with the big-budget that Disney secured for the production, he’s still struggling to keep all the expenses in line. If it was up to him, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’s budget would be half a billion dollars.

“I innately think about budget while I’m writing, always. Even something as big budgeted as Volume 3 is still a struggle. You know, it’s still a struggle to make it fit the budget because you want a movie to be half a billion dollars. If I had half a billion dollars, I could kind of do pretty close to what I want. That’s how hard it is. I’m always having to think about budget and make concessions because of budget, but oftentimes it leads to good things. You oftentimes are forced to rethink something and you have to come up with a creative solution.” — James Gunn for Collider

It’s unknown how much money Disney secured for the production of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, but it’s presumed it’s around $200 million. Both previous Guardians movies also had a $200 million budget, as well as MCU’s recent movies Eternals, Shang-Chi, Black Widow, and Spider-Man: No Way Home did. It’s safe to say that $200 million is like a regular price that Disney and Marvel Studios are willing to pay for one movie now, at least until the next big crossover knocks on the door.

Written and directed by James Gunn, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is currently in production, with the release date set for May 5, 2023.