The graphics chase was expensive 15 or 20 years ago, but these days it's negligible just given how streamlined tech is that enables both movie and video game production to achieve photorealism at relatively low costs. It's why we see so many one and two-man projects like Bright Memory or Bodycam look better than most AAA titles but were made on peanut-butter-and-jelly-sandwich budgets.

The main issue is there is a lot of bloat and waste; it's something Robert Rodriguez talked about at length and lamented the way Hollywood did things during a speech he gave at University of Arizona more than two decades ago.