Thank you. That was illuminating
Oh, and Box Office Mojo is very good with tracking box office results worldwide. With electronic ticketing, it’s extremely difficult for studios to inflate or hide the true number of tickets sold.
But real production budgets are still closely guarded industry secrets. Not many personnel on any given film have access. Box Office Mojo relies on whatever “public” information is available — and the studio always lowballs it. Mojo doesn’t question the official number because they want to maintain access to their sources.
When a film has wrapped and the studio begins to do press, they’ll release a low-ball figure that never includes the real total cost of getting the film into the theaters, for several reasons. A lower reported budget makes the filmmakers look better — if you’re a director and you brought in a great-looking superhero film for sixty million dollars, you’re going to get hired for your next gig quicker than the guy who spent a hundred million.
Studio executives also want the shareholders to think films cost less than they do — it shows they’re in control, have made good hires, and generally makes their department bottom line look better. If a film loses money — well, it’s okay, it didn’t cost that much to make. And if it makes money... look at what we did with such a small budget!
And so forth... there are lots of reasons studios obscure, fudge, and get creative when talking about budgets.