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Notes -
There are cases of people making movies with iPhones , so anything is possible. TV has gotten more ambitious and it may have made smaller movies cheaper to make. But VFX-heavy tentpoles seem to be another thing.
There's a ton of talent in this field, including some that are known for being very clear with their vision and so not prone to ballooning budgets. But even for people like Villeneuve who have shown they can work lean or allegedly modestly budgeted MCU flicks we end up ~180-200m. Given inflation that may be a cut but not as large as you'd need.
If anything, the big companies might be able to bully more work out of their contractors than a newcomer would. Victoria Alonso, who was recently booted from Marvel potentially as a scapegoat, was apparently notorious for wringing every bit of labour she could from VFX artists so she could get endless changes before she made a final decision
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