Hollywood is often skewered for no longer making large-scale original epics like “The Northman,” director Robert Eggers’ bloody Viking tale about a warrior’s quest to avenge his father’s death.

Yet Focus Features, Universal’s indie label, took a gamble, not only backing “The Northman” but releasing the film in theaters nationwide. Driven by positive reviews, the movie generated 12 million from 3,865 North American theaters over the weekend, enough to secure the No. 4 spot on domestic box office charts. Not bad for an arthouse film, huh?

Except for the pesky fact that “The Northman” was 10 times as expensive to produce as your average indie. How much the movie actually cost is up for debate; Eggers has been loudly and proudly touting its 90 million production budget in the press, much to the chagrin of its financial investors. They dispute Eggers’ math, privately saying the final figure was closer to 70 million after factoring in tax incentives.