Let’s get down to business: Disney‘s upcoming live-action Mulan reportedly carries a more than $290 million dollar price tag, according to Pursue News.
Sources close to the site claim the project, now in pre-production in New Zealand, has Disney setting aside a budget of “$290 million plus” for the re-imagining of the 1998 animated Disney film that starred Ming-Na Wen and Eddie Murphy.
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The sets will be “massive” and of “an unprecedented scale,” the site reports, adding those sets are in the design stage and would require ample time to be constructed. The sets will be built by the same crew that forged the Asgard sets seen in Marvel Studios’ Thor: Ragnarok, the Chris Hemsworth-led hit blockbuster that cost the Disney-owned production arm a relatively inexpensive $180 million.
For comparison, the studio spent “close to $300 million” on superhero crossover epic Avengers: Infinity War, which cost the studio upwards of $450,000 a day and went over budget to bring together its Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, Black Panther, Doctor Strange and Spider-Man franchises.
If that $290 million plus budget for Mulan holds true, it will make Disney’s latest animation-to-live-action translation one of the most expensive movie productions in history.
Disney’s own Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides tops the list as the most costly movie ever made at an estimated $378.5 million, just ahead of Avengers: Age of Ultron ($365 million) and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End ($300 million) — both Disney productions.
Avengers: Infinity War and Warner Bros.’ Justice League are tied for third with costs in the neighborhood of $300 million, trailed by two more Disney productions in John Carter ($263.7 million) and the CG-animated Tangled ($260 million).
Mulan‘s reported $290 million price tag also tops superhero blockbusters Spider-Man 3 ($258m), Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice ($250m), and Captain America: Civil War ($250m).
That’s also costlier than big-scale action films like The Fate of the Furious ($250m), Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($245m) and James Cameron’s Avatar ($237m).
Niki Caro (The Zookeeper’s Wife) directs from a script by Rick Jaffa (Rise of the Planet of the Apes), Amanda Silver (Jurassic World), and Lauren Hynek and Elizabeth Martin (Christmas Perfection).
Starring Liu Yifei as Mulan, Donnie Yen as Commander Tung, and Jet Li as the Emperor, Mulan opens March 27, 2020.
