The Smaller Budget of Netflix’s Bioshock Film May Be the Best News We’ve Heard All Week, as Any Fans of the Game Will Agree

Roughly a decade after the release of the final Bioshock game, it appears like the franchise is all set to expand in a different medium – a film. Initially announced in 2022 by Netflix, the film was claimed to be the first movie in a potential cinematic universe.

After a long period of silence, fans finally got an update about the movie from producer Roy Lee. As per Lee, the film is still happening, however, the budget has been significantly reduced. While some will see this as a setback, it could be a blessing in disguise.

The Budget Of Netflix’s Bioshock Movie Has Been Reduced

During a panel at San Diego Comic-Con, producer Roy Lee revealed what happened to Netflix’s Bioshock movie project. After the project was announced in 2022, several major changes took place within Netflix and as a result, the production of the movie was affected. Lee said (via Variety),

The new regime has lowered the budgets – So we’re doing a much smaller version… It’s going to be a more personal point of view, as opposed to a grander, big project.

In April 2024, Netflix’s film chief, Scott Stuber, was replaced by Dan Lin and since then, Netflix has been following a different strategy.

When the Bioshock movie was initially announced, it was expected to have a massive budget as they also planned to set up a cinematic universe based on the video game franchise, however, fans will have to lower their expectations now.

Bioshock’s Low Budget Could Be A Blessing In Disguise

The low budget is indeed a setback but this means that Netflix will not focus on making the Bioshock movie a typical summer blockbuster. Many popular video game franchises have got movie adaptations in the past few years but most of them felt like a cash grab.

It is indeed a very difficult task to utilize a small budget to create a movie based on a very popular franchise but we can hope for the best from the director Francis Lawrence, who has directed iconic movies like I Am Legend (2007), Water for Elephants (2011) and Red Sparrow (2018) in the past.

This year has been exciting for Bioshock fans as they not only got an update about the Bioshock film but also some information about the next Bioshock game.

A recent job listing on LinkedIn revealed that the Bioshock team at 2K Cloud Chamber is ramping up, so fans should expect an announcement soon. Unfortunately, the franchise will continue without Ken Levine, the creator of two Bioshock games, Bioshock (2007) and Bioshock Infinite (2013).

Do you think the movie will meet the set expectations? Share your views in the comments!