Blade movie will have budget of less than $100m

❘ Published: 2023-11-01T17:54:35

Marvel

Marvel movies are some of the most expensive films ever made, but according to a new report, the forthcoming Blade reboot will be budgeted at less than $100 million.

A new Blade movie has been stuck in development hell for years. During Comic-Con 2019, Marvel boss Kevin Feige announced Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali as the lead. While in 2022, Yann Demange (’71, White Boy Ricky) became the director.

Multiple screenwriters have boarded the project – about the titular vampire-hunter – with the likes of Stacy Amma Osei-Kuffour, Michael Starrbury, and Nic Pizzolatto all taking a stab at the script.

But in spite of the fact that the film currently has a February 2025 release date, principal photography has yet to commence. And thanks to a new behind-the-scenes report, we now know why there have been delays, plus details of the movie’s scaled-down budget.

Blade movie will have budget of less than $100m

According to Variety, script issues have caused Blade to be pushed back multiple times. Their source reports that “the story at one point morphed into a narrative led by women and filled with life lessons. Blade was relegated to the fourth lead.” Which is weird, as the main character in a Blade movie should probably be Blade.

Logan scribe Michael Green has done the most recent rewrite of the script, though another issue is causing changes to be made.

The most recent Marvel movie – Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania – underperformed at the box office. The next installment in the MCU franchise – The Marvels – is also tracking poorly.

Variety states that the studio is therefore looking to deviate “from Marvel’s big-spending strategy,” meaning that Blade will have “a budget of less than $100 million.”

Recent MCU budgets

That compares favorably with the original Blade movie, which was made for $45 million back in 1998. But to put the number into perspective, these are the estimated budgets for the most recent Marvel movies:

Guardian of the Galaxy Vol. 3 – $250 million
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania – $200 million
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – $225 million
Thor: Love and Thunder – $250 million
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness – $295 million

For more on what’s happening at Marvel, you can read about plans to bring dead Avengers back here, and talk of replacing Kang the Conqueror with Doctor Doom here. While you can also check out a bunch of superhero previews below: