Universal spent $658.8M on “Jurassic World: Dominion,” dethroning Disney’s “Force Awakens”

Universal Pictures has taken Disney’s “most expensive movie of all time” title. Its 2022 action-adventure, “Jurassic World: Dominion,” cost $658.8 million to make, surpassing Disney’s 2015 “Star Wars” reboot, “The Force Awakens,” which cost $638.9 million. The filings also quantify how the COVID-era production grind and the UK’s reimbursement system turned a headline budget number into a more nuanced (and potentially fragile) profit story.

The key detail hiding behind the “$659 million” figure: Universal also disclosed that it received $127.8 million in UK reimbursement, lowering its net outlay on the film to about $531 million. That’s the difference between “box office bragging rights” and “does the math actually work after costs and incentives?” For decision-makers, this is a reminder that movie budgets do not exist in isolation. They interact with regulation, geography, timing, and risk appetite.

So how did Universal get there in the first place? “Dominion” was the third film in Universal’s “Jurassic World” series and united stars Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pratt with Lara Dern, Jeff Goldblum, and Sam Neill, who headlined the original “Jurassic Park” trilogy. Filmed at the peak of the pandemic in 2020, the production had to adopt costly safety protocols. Universal also faced months of delays that pushed the premiere back by a year to June 2022.

Those delays mattered financially because studios still had to keep production infrastructure ready. The filings and analysis describe studios maintaining productions “in a state of readiness” during downtime, which drove costs up. Studios had to continue paying for soundstages and leased equipment that could not be returned without risking losing the access window. The picture also required paying security staff to watch over sets, and paying high-level producers and department heads so they remained available as the pandemic receded. Even the cast did not exactly “reset” their schedule: the stars were holed up in Marriott’s Langley Hotel in the UK near where “Dominion” was filmed at historic Pinewood Studios, and hotel rooms cost more than $600 a night, impacting Universal’s bottom line.

Then comes the UK funding mechanism that turns this into a strategic play, not just a spendathon. The exact cost of making movies in the US is typically treated as closely guarded secret, but in the UK the numbers can be tracked because studios filing for incentives must show their work. For “Dominion” and “The Force Awakens,” the UK’s Audio-Visual Expenditure Credit (AVEC) provided cash reimbursement of up to 25.5% of money spent there. But there is a catch: to qualify, a film must pass a points test proving it is “worth” to the UK, based on factors like the share of lead actors from the UK, the amount of UK content, and how much filming occurred in the UK.

That structure helps explain why “Dominion” scenes were shot in the woods of south-east England and why Wolfson College at Oxford University doubled for the headquarters of Biosyn Corporation. Universal’s points tally was supported by British actress Isabella Sermon, who plays the cloned girl at the heart of the film. The incentive also requires that at least 10% of core costs of the production be incurred in the UK. To demonstrate compliance, studios set up a separate Film Production Company (FPC) in the UK for each picture. These FPCs file financial statements that spotlight everything from headcount and social security payments to the reimbursement banked and total production cost.

This is where the industry gets delightfully bureaucratic. The FPCs often have code names to avoid drawing attention from fans when permits are filed. For “Dominion,” the subsidiary company was Arcadia Pictures, named after the rescue ship from the prior movie “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,” which was also shot in the UK. The FPC behind “Fallen Kingdom” was called Ancient Futures. The filings are submitted in stages: they start during pre-production and continue after the premiere so the company has time to collect bills and receive incentive money.

The latest set for Arcadia Pictures shows that in the year to December 31, 2024, the company’s costs totaled $74.9 million (£59.6 million), bringing the production’s total to $658.8 million. One major cost was paying staff, which peaked at an average of 454 monthly employees, excluding freelancers, contractors, and temporary staff not listed on the books of British companies even though they often represent the majority of workers on a film shoot. Universal paid $36.2 million (£27.5 million) to staff working on “Dominion” and also spent on UK services like security, equipment hire, transport, and catering.

That’s how the reimbursement converts the net picture. The analysis states that the total reimbursement for “Dominion” was $127.8 million (£99.5 million), bringing Universal’s net outlay down to $531 million. With theatrical “rental fees” widely established as a 50-50 split, the box office haul of almost precisely $1 billion would imply about $500 million for Universal from theaters. After deducting the $531 million net outlay, that suggests a small loss on the theatrical run, but not the end of the story, because movies also earn from Blu-ray and streaming sales and merchandise. Universal’s filings also place “Dominion” above the other recent “Jurassic World” films on pure budget: “Fallen Kingdom” at $606.3 million and “Jurassic World Rebirth” at $254.2 million. Their combined $262.1 million reimbursement brought Universal’s net outlay on them down to $1.3 billion, and its $1.6 billion share of the box office left it with a $300 million profit. Without reimbursement, the profit picture would have been closer to zero.

The strategic stakes intensify beyond Jurassic. If the UK keeps subsidizing and financing Hollywood at scale, it becomes a permanent cost advantage. The British Film Institute data cited in the analysis says spending on feature film production in the UK rose 31% to a record $3.8 billion (£2.8 billion) last year. That matters because box office is still not back to pre-pandemic strength. Gower Street Analytics forecasts worldwide box office takings will hit $34.7 billion this year, 18% less than the peak in 2019. The reimbursement scheme can plug that gap. And with sequels like a “Rebirth” continuation in development, Universal likely has reasons to keep using the UK.

But there’s also a regulatory cliffhanger in the background: US politics. The analysis says President Trump announced in May last year that a 100% tariff would apply to movies entering the US that are produced in “foreign lands,” and later wrote on social media that he would impose a 100% tariff on any and all movies made outside the United States. The policy is not yet enacted. Still, if studios lost their UK financing due to tariff pressure, “Dominion” could remain the king of budget rankings for years, but the incentive logic that softened losses could vanish, changing how boards evaluate where to shoot, what to finance, and how to structure production risk.

For executives across studios, distributors, and film-finance investors, the lesson is uncomfortable but actionable: today’s biggest-budget win might be tomorrow’s exposure if incentive rules flip. The “most expensive movie” label is catchy. The real story is that incentives and geography can decide whether the check becomes profit or pain.