$100M+ Budget Makes Elden Ring A24's Biggest Bet

A24's most expensive film ever was Civil War, which reportedly cost around $50 million. Before that, the studio built its reputation on tight budgets and creative freedom, turning movies like Ex Machina, Hereditary, and Everything Everywhere All at Once into cultural events without blockbuster spending. So when The Hollywood Reporter reports that the Elden Ring movie has a budget "well over" $100 million, it signals something unprecedented for the studio: a blockbuster gamble.

A24 and Bandai Namco officially revealed the full cast on Monday alongside a March 3, 2028 release date. The film will carry the "Filmed for IMAX" certification and will be directed by Alex Garland, who wrote 28 Days Later and directed Annihilation and Civil War. Production begins this week in the U.K., where set photos leaked earlier this month already had fans losing their minds over the accuracy of the environments.

The cast is deep. Kit Connor, who broke out in Netflix's Heartstopper and appeared in Garland's Warfare, leads the ensemble. He's joined by Ben Whishaw (Paddington, the Daniel Craig Bond films as Q), Cailee Spaeny (Alien: Romulus, Civil War), Tom Burke (Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga), Nick Offerman (The Last of Us, Parks and Recreation), Jonathan Pryce (Brazil, Game of Thrones), Sonoya Mizuno (House of the Dragon, Ex Machina), Havana Rose Liu (Bottoms), Ruby Cruz (Willow), John Hodgkinson, Jefferson Hall, Emma Laird, and Peter Serafinowicz. Several of these actors have worked with Garland before, and Serafinowicz has actual FromSoftware history, having voiced Pate in Dark Souls 2.

George R.R. Martin, who contributed world-building and lore to the original game alongside Hidetaka Miyazaki, is among the producers.

A24 Playing a Different Game

Here's what makes the budget figure so striking. A24 has spent the last decade proving you don't need $100 million to make a film people care about. Their entire identity is built on backing distinctive directors with modest resources and letting the work speak for itself. Crossing the nine-figure threshold for a video game adaptation isn't just a bigger cheque; it's a different business model for them. They're competing with studios that have been making $150-200 million franchise films for years.

I think this is the right call, and I'm more excited about this than any game-to-film project since the first trailer for The Last of Us on HBO. Elden Ring's world demands scale. The Erdtree, the Lands Between, the grotesque demigod designs; none of that works if it looks cheap. Garland has proven he can make visually striking films on a fraction of this budget, so giving him real resources could produce something special. And the cast isn't just famous names thrown at a poster. Connor, Spaeny, Whishaw, and Burke are all actors who bring weight to their roles. This isn't a cast assembled for marketing; it reads like a cast assembled by a director who had specific people in mind.

The risk is obvious, though. Video game movies have a brutal track record even when they're competent. The audience for a dark fantasy film based on a game famous for its difficulty and cryptic storytelling is not automatically the same audience that packed theatres for the Super Mario Bros. Movie. A24 needs this to work both as a film that satisfies Elden Ring's passionate fanbase and as a standalone experience that justifies IMAX ticket prices for people who've never touched a controller. At over $100 million, breaking even requires a massive theatrical run.

Garland also has experience adjacent to games, having co-written Enslaved: Odyssey to the West and served as story supervisor on DMC: Devil May Cry. That background, combined with Martin's involvement as producer, at least suggests the adaptation won't treat the source material as window dressing. Production kicks off this week, with the film targeting its March 3, 2028 IMAX release.