‘Avengers: Infinity War’ Budget Is $1 Billion, Robert Downey Jr Pay Cheque Is Insane

Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 and Part 2 are reportedly going to cost $1 billion to produce. It’s also been revealed that Robert Downey Jr. is going to be paid an insane and inordinate amount of money for starring in the films.

Bleeding Cool were the first to report that Marvel Studios plan on spending this astronomical sum on the third and fourth films to bring the superheroes together. The news has started to emerge on the eve of New York Comic Con, which began in the Big Apple on Thursday and will continue until Sunday.

However, while that’s a huge amount of money to spend on a film, it actually makes sense. Let’s not forget that Avengers: Infinity Wars are going to be two movies. Plus, Avengers: Age Of Ultron came to a cost of around $350 million, $60 million of which was refunded in tax incentives. Plus, another $150 million was then spent on both marketing and distribution.

Marvel Studios is still very much in the early stages of planning for Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 and Part 2. In fact, Bleeding Cool also reported that a script for the blockbuster hasn’t even been created yet, and they’re still ironing out the plot. Despite this lack of information, it’s been teased that several Avengers characters are likely to die in the film.

This indicates that the supposed $1 billion budget may ultimately go down, or maybe even up. If the script hasn’t even been written yet, how can the studio know how much scenes will cost?

Plus, they don’t know where filming is going to take place, and it’s likely that countries across the world will be offering all kinds of tax incentives to Marvel to shoot on their locations. Companies will also be looking to pay dozens of millions for corporate sponsorships or product placements being included in the film. That being said, the estimate is still a long way from being confirmed.

Probably the most startling fact to emerge from the alleged budget reveal is just how much one particular actor is going to pocket from starring in the films. It’s been no secret that Robert Downey Jr. has negotiated a pretty sweet deal with Marvel Studios when his original deal with them came to end.

In fact, back in August, Forbes revealed that Robert Downey Jr. was actually paid $80 million last year alone for starring in Avengers: Age Of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War, an amount that’s only going to increase when his royalties from the films come in. This came after he allegedly, via Variety, made $50 million for starring in The Avengers and $75 million from his work on Iron Man 3.

But that’s nothing compared to what he is potentially going to pocket for starring in Avengers: Infinity War Part One and Avengers: Infinity War Part Two.

Bleeding Cool have insisted that Marvel has earmarked $400 million to pay for the films’ screenwriter, director, producers and principal actors. A whopping $200 million of this total will go straight into the pocket of Robert Downey, Jr.

Even by actor standards, that’s an obscene amount of money. In fact, Gwyneth Paltrow, who starred in the Iron Man trilogy opposite Robert Downey Jr., recently told Variety, “Look, nobody is worth the money that Robert Downey Jr. is worth.”

It will be a while before Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 and Part 2 arrive in cinemas. Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely have been tasked with writing the blockbuster, while Anthony and Joe Russo will direct. Part 1 will be in cinemas on May 4, 2018, while Part 2 will then follow on May 3, 2019.

[Photos by Marvel Studios; Theo Wargo/NBC; Getty Images for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon; Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney]