Disney has revealed that its super hero spy drama Secret Invasion is expected to be over budget as its costs have ballooned to $211.6 million (£166.2 million).
The six-part streaming series stars Samuel L. Jackson and Oscar-winner Olivia Colman as rival agents trying to track down an army of shape-shifting aliens who have infiltrated the corridors of power.
It debuted on the Disney+ platform at the end of last month to the second-lowest audience of any Marvel Comics streaming series according to media analysts Samba TV. Its data showed that 994,000 viewers watched Secret Invasion in its first five days, only just beating Ms. Marvel, which attracted a total of 775,000.
It stands in stark contrast to shows like Loki with 2.5 million viewers and Moon Knight with 1.8 million. Secret Invasion was expected to top them all as it is based on a beloved comic book series and has a heavyweight cast with Jackson joined by his Avengers co-stars Don Cheadle and Cobie Smulders.
Some have praised the show’s gritty atmosphere whilst others have lamented its lack of Marvel’s trademark action scenes. It is a welcome tonal shift for the studio after a string of lighthearted box office busts including Thor: Love and Thunder and Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. It was a costly gamble.
Secret Invasion was filmed at the historic Pinewood Studios just outside London and was also shot on location across the United Kingdom. One of the aliens’ bases is located in the UK capital’s hip borough of Brixton and London’s streets even doubled for Moscow.
Jackson and co also ventured north and filmed scenes in the less glitzy cities of Leeds, Halifax and Huddersfield. It’s a far cry from tinsel town and this shines a spotlight on the otherwise secretive cost of film-making.
Budgets of streaming shows are usually confidential as studios combine the cost of them in their overall expenses and don’t itemise how much they spent on each one.
Shows made in the UK are an exception. They benefit from the government’s Television Tax Relief scheme which allows studios to claim a cash reimbursement of up to 25% of the money they spend in the country.
To qualify, shows must pass a points test based on factors such as how much filming was done in the UK, the level of UK content and how much they promote UK heritage which explains why Brixton was chosen as the location of the aliens’ base.
At least 10% of the core costs of the production need to derive from work in the UK. In order to demonstrate this to the government, studios set up separate UK companies to make each streaming series and they have to file publicly-available financial statements.
The companies usually have code names so that they don’t raise attention when filing for permits to film on location. The Disney subsidiary behind Secret Invasion is called Grass-Fed Productions in a nod to the green hue of the aliens.
As we recently revealed in the UK’s Daily Express newspaper, the financial statements for Grass-Fed Productions show that the series is “forecast to be over the production budget”. Although no reason is given for this, it is believed that extensive reshoots contributed to it.
Filming wrapped in April last year but Jackson later confirmed that he would return to London to work on reshoots which reportedly took a total of four months. They finished in September and even involved a new writer being hired to work on the additional material. It came at quite a cost.
The financial statements reveal that in just over two years to the end of September 2022, Disney spent $211.6 million (£166.2 million) on making Secret Invasion. It is more than double the production cost of the first season of The Witcher, 20% more than its second season and even 20% more than the cost of 2011’s big screen blockbuster Captain America.
It puts the cost of Secret Invasion at $35.3 million (£27.7 million) per hour which is around 30 times the minimum spend required to receive the cash reimbursement. Secret Invasion qualified with flying colours and the financial statements reveal that it received a $41.3 million (£32.2 million) reimbursement. Every cent of it was needed.
The Disney+ streaming platform hasn’t been profitable since it was launched in 2019 and made an operating loss of $659 million in the first quarter of 2023 alone. In February Disney’s CEO Bob Iger announced cuts to its content as part of a plan to make $5.5 billion of company-wide cost savings. Marvel was right in the middle of his crosshairs.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige explained that “the pace at which we’re putting out the Disney+ shows will change so they can each get a chance to shine.” He added that this means both having more time between projects and putting out fewer each year.
Secret Invasion was commissioned long before the studio’s current woes but its blockbuster budget adds to the pressure for Marvel, Disney and its prestigious Pixar animation division.
Last year Pixar’s Lightyear and Disney’s Strange World animated movies were both branded woke and together only grossed $300 million. More recently, the live action version of classic cartoon the Little Mermaid floundered at the box office whilst last month’s Elemental earned $29.5 million over the three days of its first weekend giving it the lowest debut of a Pixar film since Toy Story in 1995.
These expensive flops put even more importance on Secret Invasion’s cash reimbursement which reduced its net costs to $170.3 million. It had a heroic impact on the UK.
Filming generates economic impact as studios spend on local services such as security, catering and visual effects firms. It also keeps local workers in jobs and one of Grass-Fed Production’s biggest single expenses was the $20.8 million (£16.2 million) paid to production staff. They peaked at 314 workers without even including freelance workers who make up the majority of the crew. So even if Secret Invasion doesn’t ignite viewers’ interest, it will still have a happy ending in the UK.
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