User blog comment:J Fan/Pirates 5 - Sequel News Rundown/@comment-12320611-20130808102109/@comment-1984959-20130809015810

Correction: (assuming this story hold true) Disney wants to slim down the budget around $200 million. I don't think they want to hit the $300 million again, but I'm sure they don't want to just spend approximately $200 million. Kinda depends on the film's content.

It'll be difficult to know the budget as the cost changes over time...especially of a large movie like P5, due to tax credits, and a rolling salary to producers, actors, directors, etc. Also, the studio tends to hire itself&mdash;to rent sound stages, to do marketing, it pays itself a distribution fee, they loan themselves money. Thus, studio accounting.