Netflix’s brand-new sci-fi movie The Electric State garnered plenty of attention ahead of its March 14th, 2025, release date, but part of that attention was due to its reportedly staggering budget. The movie, which stars MCU and Jurassic World actor Chris Pratt and Stranger Things actor Millie Bobby Brown, is set in the 1990s in an alternate reality that has been overrun with robots. The Electric State was created by the Russo brothers, well-known for directing multiple Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movies, including the box office smash-hits Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.

The Russo brothers are therefore no stranger to massive budgets, and they evidently brought a similar mindset to The Electric State. One major difference, however, is that The Electric State is a Netflix original movie and therefore did not get a theatrical release. Despite that, The Electric State reportedly had a shockingly high budget—in fact, it is Netflix’s most expensive movie to date.

The Electric State’s Budget Is Reportedly Around $300M: How It Compares To Other Netflix Movies

The Electric State Is The Most Expensive Netflix Movie Of All Time

The Electric State is widely reported to have had a $320 million budget, although that is not yet confirmed by Netflix. That number was reported by Puck News last year, and it has since been reported by myriad other news sources as well. This massive budget is enough to cause sticker shock already, but it only becomes all the more shocking in light of the fact that, based on this number, The Electric State is Netflix’s most expensive movie to date.

In recent years, several Netflix original movies have had jaw-dropping budgets. Among these are Red Notice and The Gray Man, two of Netflix’s most expensive movies of all time. Red Notice, which was released in 2021, had a $200 million budget. It was the single most expensive Netflix movie until The Gray Man was released the following year with an identical budget.

Other pricey Netflix movies include 6 Underground, The Irishman, and Outlaw King, all of which had budgets greater than $100 million. What makes The Electric State’s budget especially jarring, though, is that The Electric State is one of the most expensive movies of all time, even beyond just Netflix. The Electric State’s budget actually ranks up there with major franchise movies like Star Wars, the MCU, Avatar, and Jurassic World.

The Electric State’s Robots Are Likely The Biggest Factor In Its Budget

The Movie’s Many Robots Are All CGI And/Or Motion Capture

There are a number of reasons why The Electric State’s budget is so high, although one of the most prominent is likely the robots that are so heavily featured in the movie. As mentioned, The Electric State is an alternate 1990s, which has a retrofuturism aesthetic. Part of that includes innumerable robots, all of which are brought to life with CGI and/or motion capture. This alone would have had a significant financial demand.

What makes this all the more challenging in The Electric State is the fact that many of these robots are actually quite unique. While this is fantastic from a visual and storytelling standpoint, it’s a very expensive prospect. Because the robots are so varied, they require all the more in terms of CGI and motion capture, which becomes very expensive very quickly. This also isn’t the only major factor at play.

The Electric State Has A Big Cast With Some Major Stars

The Salaries For The Star-Studded Cast Are Likely A Factor

In addition to the cost of CGI and motion capture, The Electric State has a truly star-studded cast. Yet again, while that’s great news for a movie, it’s also a major expense. In addition to Chris Pratt and Millie Bobby Brown as the movie’s leading stars, the cast of The Electric State includes Ke Huy Quan, Woody Harrelson, Stanley Tucci, Anthony Mackie, Giancarlo Esposito, and many others.

Brown and Pratt alone no doubt brought in quite a bit for this movie, but there are clearly a number of other likely high-earning stars in the cast as well. In fact, even the Russo brothers themselves, as the directors, are a factor in The Electric State’s budget in terms of salaries. With both the CGI/motion capture elements and the salaries of some of these major stars taken into account, this massive budget begins to make a bit more sense.

However, given this is Netflix’s most expensive movie to date, the number remains fairly shocking, and now, The Electric State’s reviews raise some serious questions about whether it was worth it. This can be a significant problem in the sci-fi genre, which lends itself to bigger budgets but doesn’t always land well with audiences. With The Electric State’s current critic score sitting at a dismal 18% on Rotten Tomatoes, there’s certainly concern that The Electric State could fall into this category.

Does The Electric State Being So Expensive Matter?

This Budget Has Implications For The Movie And For The Industry

Although The Electric State has yet to release on Netflix, this massive budget paired with the wave of negative critic reviews has absolutely drawn attention. This includes generalized concerns about the ever-mounting cost of movies that are direct to streaming services rather than major theatrical releases. As is clear from just looking at other high-budget original Netflix movies, this issue has grown exponentially with time, and it has interesting (and troubling) implications for the industry.

Streaming services’ original movies were never intended to have the massive costs associated with the major box office hits. With The Electric State reportedly costing well over $300 million, though, it seems times have certainly changed. What this will mean long-term remains to be seen, and that’s likely a concern for Netflix and other streaming and/or subscription services as much as it is for anyone else.

For The Electric State, Netflix isn’t able to recuperate its money through the box office. Rather, this will presumably be done through an increase in subscriptions, viewing minutes, and other metrics specific to the platform. That’s no doubt a daunting task given the enormity of the movie’s budget, though.

There’s also the fact that audiences have heightened expectations when the budget for a movie is this high, and, based on critic reviews, audiences may be in for a bit of disappointment. Fair or not, the knowledge that this movie cost hundreds of millions of dollars to make is likely to only increase audience frustration if they find the movie lacking. Of course, there’s a fair chance the audience and critic scores don’t align. That remains to be seen, but, as it stands, The Electric State is Netflix’s most expensive movie to date, and the pressure is certainly on.