The 10 most expensive movies

If you like to watch movies like me, but you may also be like me, totally unaware that some movies cost so much money. So let’s take a look at the top ten most expensive movies.

Tenth Cleopatra

This famous American movie “Cleopatra”, premiered on June 12, 1963, and caused a sensation, because no one has ever made or even seen such an expensive movie. It cost a total of US$31.1 million. If it is put in 2020, it is equivalent to US$248.5 million in terms of today’s inflation rate.

This film put 20th Century Fox on the verge of bankruptcy, and the actual funding exceeded the budget by 21 million US dollars. There are many stars in this film. The young Elizabeth Taylor plays the 7th century Cleopatra, and there are many famous actors of the time. For example, Mr. Rex Harrison and Richard Burton, Taylor’s pay has reached a record one million dollars. And because the shooting time was greatly overdue, the film remuneration eventually reached 7 million US dollars. According to today’s calculation, it is almost 56 million US dollars.

Fortunately, the film finally won a box office of 57.8 million US dollars. The equivalent of today’s, 462 million US dollars.

Ninth “Waterworld”

The epic doomsday blockbuster starring Kevin Costner, “Waterworld” was released on July 28, 1995. The film’s budget is 172 million U.S. dollars. According to today’s calculation, it has reached 276 million U.S. dollars. This film was the most expensive movie at the time, and it almost caused the financial crisis of Universal Pictures, and it only won the box office of 88 million US dollars in North America. In the foreign market, “Waterworld” was a big success, with a total of 176 million U.S. dollars. The global box office reached 264 million US dollars, which is equivalent to today’s 424 million US dollars.

The final cost of the film exceeded the budget by $75 million. Because the huge water fence set was damaged by the hurricane, Costner, as the producer, requested that the entire film be re-dubbed. This is undoubtedly a nightmare for the film party, but even by today’s standards, it is still a classic.

Eighth “John Carter”

If you don’t remember this movie, “John Carter” starring Taylor Kitsch and William Dafoe, which was released in 2012. Probably because it is Disney, the biggest loss film in history. The marketing and production of the film cost a total of 350 million U.S. dollars, which put a huge pressure on the box office to pay back. When the film opened on March 9, 2012, the evaluation of the story and the plot was polarized. Therefore, its box office in North America is only $73 million.

The film recovered some losses in overseas markets, with a box office of 211 million U.S. dollars, and a global box office of 284 million U.S. dollars, with a loss of 66 million U.S. dollars. The failure of the film directly led to the resignation of the chairman of Walt Disney Studios, Rich Rose. “John Carter” was originally going to be made into a trilogy, but the plan was eventually shelved due to the huge loss of the first part.

Seventh “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”

If you are a “Harry Potter” fan, you may be interested in the sixth part of this “Harry Potter” series. “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” cost a lot of money, in fact it is the most expensive one in the “Harry Potter” movie series, and it is also the seventh most expensive movie in film history. When the film was released on July 15, 2009, its cost reached 275 million U.S. dollars, 100 million U.S. dollars higher than the upper part, and the last “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” Set, the total cost is as much.

The high cost of this film is partly due to the actors’ pay. These actors who have been working together since the first part of the series signed a new contract when filming the film. Including starring Daniel Radcliffe, who earned 14 to 20 million US dollars from this role. But the film eventually won a global box office of 934 million U.S. dollars and was an incredible success.

Sixth “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End”

Since 2003, the “Pirates of the Caribbean” film series produced by Jerry Brockheimer has become a cash cow for Walt Disney Studios, but it is also quite expensive. You have to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to guarantee the actors. Superb acting skills, cool computer special effects and peculiar, exotic scenery. This film is the third part of the series. It was released on May 25, 2007. It created a new high in film cost with a cost of US$300 million. The film starring Johnny Depp as the infamous Captain Jack, paid for 60 million US dollars.

The film was considered the last pirate film at the time, and the remuneration of stars such as Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom already accounted for a third of the budget.

Disney should be grateful that the box office of this film in North America is 390 million US dollars, the overseas box office is as high as 654 million US dollars, and the global box office is 963 million US dollars.

Fifth “Avengers: Age of Ultron”

Usually, the cost of putting superheroes on the big screen is relatively high, but if you put all the superheroes in a movie, the cost is immeasurable, and you will even use up everything. “Avengers: Age of Ultron” was released on May 1, 2015, with a total cost of 316 million US dollars. Used for film remuneration, sets and more than 3000 film synthesis shots and production team. Together, they created the greatest superhero movie in history. Robert Downey Jr. earned 40 million US dollars for the role of Iron Man, and Scarlett Johansson earned 20 million US dollars for the role of Black Widow. Other actors like Thor, Hulk, Hawkeye, and Captain America earned a total of 21.2 million US dollars.

This film, written and directed by Jos Weiden, has not only won praise from film critics, but also won a global box office of 1.4 billion U.S. dollars, becoming the seventh highest grossing film in history.

Fourth “Tangled”

Disney’s computer animation film “Tangled” was adapted from “Rapunzel” and was released on November 24, 2010. With a total budget of US$281 million, it is the fourth most expensive film in history. Rapunzel is the first Disney princess to be 3D. Most of the cost of this film is used for computer graphics engineering, especially to enhance the beauty of the film. Digital artists try to combine the traditional 2D drawing style with the 3D movement and depth. The fusion is carried out to create a movie with a hand-painted style. Rather than being as realistic as a photo of a Disney princess movie, the most difficult and costly one is also embarrassing for animators, how to create a realistic hair shape, this problem took six years to solve. But the conversion to 3D proved to be a wise decision.

The film’s North American box office was 280 million U.S. dollars, overseas box office was 399 million U.S. dollars, and the global gross box office exceeded 591 million U.S. dollars.

Third “Spider-Man 3”

This film is the latest in a trilogy directed by Sam Remy, starring Toby Maguire, Christine Dunst and James Franco, and was released on May 4, 2007. As a screenwriter and director, Remy decided to end the “Spider-Man” series in a vigorous way. At least it has to be the third-highest budget movie ever produced. A total of 293 million US dollars was spent. According to the inflation rate in 2020, it reached 342 million US dollars. The cost of “Nick” is comparable.

Starring Toby Maguire once again starred in Peter Parker with a remuneration of up to 15 million. Due to the great success of the first two films, this superhero movie, which was built with huge sums of money, has also paid off very well, with the global box office approaching 800 million. 91 million dollars. It is the highest grossing one in the “Spider-Man” series, unless the restart of “Spider-Man: Homecoming” can pull it off the throne.

Second “Titanic”

The epic masterpiece produced by James Cameron has always been one of the most famous movies in film history and one of the most expensive movies. “Titanic” was released on December 19, 1997, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. At that time, it was the largest investment in a movie in history. The total production cost reached 200 million U.S. dollars, which is equivalent to today’s 350 million U.S. dollars. Cameron also signed a contract with the manufacturing company of the Titanic, requiring them to build a model of the same scale. The main purpose is to shoot instead of sailing. All rooms must have high-resolution decorations and props. A huge budget can be realized.

The 20th Century Fox Company was very worried about the high cost of the film and the film length of more than three hours. The film finally proved to be a huge box office harvester. The North American box office reached 600 million US dollars, the overseas box office reached 1.2 billion US dollars, and the global box office totaled 18 One hundred million U.S. dollars.

The first “Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides”

Because the high cost of “Pirates of the Caribbean 3” failed to make Disney and producer Jerry Brockheimer addicted, and they were very optimistic about the fourth box office, the production cost of this film was as high as 430 million. Ten thousand U.S. dollars. In “Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides”, actor Johnny Depp once again played the audience’s favorite Captain Jack. This time the pay was settled at $55.5 million. All other supporting roles were cut off from New role replaced. Despite the huge production and marketing costs of this film, it is still profitable, with a global box office of over US$1.46 billion.

The crazy budget of the film was mainly spent on 1,100 computerized synthetic lenses, 3D cameras, exotic shooting locations, and invited master Hans Zimmer to score the film. It is considered one of the most expensive movies of all time. Although the comments are polarized, they have made a lot of money.