Disney Reveals Three Of Its ‘Star Wars’ Movies Were Over Budget

Few film franchises attract as much scrutiny of their finances from fans as Star Wars. Ever since Disney acquired the rightsholder to the sci-fi saga for $4 billion in 2012 fans have speculated that it was trying to buy its way into their hearts by throwing caution to the wind with its spending.

Their claims were supported by the colossal costs shown in regulatory filings from the United Kingdom, where all of Disney’s Star Wars movies, and many of its streaming shows, were made. The blockbuster budgets demonstrated that Disney has gone all out on Star Wars but fans still lacked evidence that it had actually overspent. Until now.

The table below is the first-ever assessment of whether Disney’s five Star Wars films stuck to their budgets. It reveals that the studio overspent on three of them with the remaining two finishing within their forecast cost and below it.

At the outset it’s important to stress the difference between the cost of a movie and its budget, even though these terms are often wrongly used interchangeably. Contrary to popular belief, the budget isn’t the cost of a movie. If this was the case, it wouldn’t possible for a film to be over or under budget. In fact, the budget is the sum that the studio allocates to it on its internal forecasts. The movie’s cost is the amount that is actually spent on it. If this is higher than the budget the studio has to allocate further funds to it in order for production to continue.

Movies usually go over budget due to unforeseen circumstances during production such as the need for reshoots or the departure of key members of the crew. Both happened on Solo: A Star Wars Story which is one of the three over-budget Star Wars films. Disney didn’t provide a comment for this report but the details in it come directly from the studio.

The overspending on Solo is revealed in the financial statements for Stannum 50 Labs (UK), the Disney subsidiary which was responsible for making the movie. Like the rest of the Star Wars films that Disney has released so far, Solo was shot in the United Kingdom where the law obliges studios to set up a local production company for every movie they make in order to claim up to 25.5% of their costs back. These companies have to file regular financial statements and the filings following the release of the movie often state whether it was over, under or in line with the budget.

Solo premiered in May 2018 and filings from Stannum 50 Labs at the end of that year stated that “the final cost was higher than the agreed budget.” The same goes for 2017’s The Last Jedi which also reportedly required reshoots. Its 2018 financial statements revealed that “the final total cost of production exceeded the budgeted expenditure.”

The third Star Wars movie which blew its budget was 2016 spinoff Rogue One and it is unclear what caused a disturbance in the force during production. Its director Gareth Edwards has cast doubt on reports that the film required extensive reshoots overseen by Tony Gilroy who went on to create hit Star Wars streaming series Andor.

On an episode of KCRW’s The Business podcast in 2023, Edwards claimed “there is so much inaccuracy” about the making of Rogue One. “The stuff that’s out there on the internet about what happened on that film – there is so much inaccuracy about the whole thing.” He explained that “Tony came in, and he did a lot of great work, for sure. No doubt about it. But we all worked together until the entire last minute of that movie.” That’s as may be but the 2017 financial statements for its production company still confirmed that “the final cost was higher than the agreed budget.”

It is equally unclear why Disney’s last Star Wars movie, 2019’s The Rise Of Skywalker, came in under budget. However, it coincided with the editing of the movie which took less time than usual. This was revealed in an interview on The Rough Cut podcast with The Rise of Skywalker’s editor Maryann Brandon who admitted that the latter stages of the production schedule were accelerated which “affected everything.”

She estimated that the crew had three months less to work on The Rise of Skywalker than The Force Awakens, the first of Disney’s Star Wars trilogy. Brandon explained that the reason for the tight timing was that Disney insisted on sticking to the movie’s December 2019 release date rather than delaying it which would have increased the post-production time and therefore the cost. Instead, the movie ended up costing $582.3 million (£442.2 million) and its 2020 financial statements revealed that this was “below the production budget.”

Reshoots are often planned into budgets but The Rise of Skywalker’s director J.J. Abrams told Entertainment Weekly that the movie ended up needing fewer than The Force Awakens. He explained that because The Force Awakens was the first movie in the series “we didn’t know if these characters would work, if the actors would be able to carry a Star Wars movie. There were a lot of things we didn’t know. On [The Rise of Skywalker], we knew who and what worked.”

Despite this, the November 15, 2016 financial statements for the production company behind The Force Awakens reveal that “the estimated total cost was within budget.” Ditto for the first series of Andor as well as the production so far of its second season which is due to be released next month. By the time that the majority of filming for season two had taken place, “the final cost was forecasted to be within the production budget” according to the November 22, 2023 financial statements for Andor’s production company.

Just one other Star Wars production spent more than expected and that was last year’s The Acolyte. The controversial streaming show was canceled after just one season following an infamous backlash to its diverse cast. However, that’s not all as its latest financial statements reveal that as of September 24, 2023, “the cost was forecasted to be over the production budget”.

Overall, 50% of the eight Star Wars productions made in the U.K. were over budget though it may not be possible to tell if that situation improves. That’s because although a massive nine more Star Wars movies are in development, filming has only begun for one of them and it was done in the United States where there is no obligation to disclose budget details.

Called The Mandalorian & Grogu it is due to be released in May next year and follows up the hit Star Wars streaming series The Mandalorian which was also made in the U.S. If the movie is as successful as the show, even Star Wars’ harshest critics probably won’t mind if it blows its budget.