Movies are a big-money industry, with millions invested over months, or even years, of production.
The slightest alteration can often have a ripple effect that causes a film's budget
to quickly skyrocket.
Here's a look at movies that lost tons of money from last-minute changes.
Director Ridley Scott decided to completely wipe Kevin Spacey from his fim All the Money
in the World after the movie was already wrapped, following extensive accusations of sexual
misconduct against Spacey.
The cost was pre-estimated at around $10 million, which was a quarter of the film's original
$40 million budget.
Within 36 hours of making the call to pull Spacey, Christopher Plummer was announced
as his replacement and 200 new shots were filmed in only nine days.
Reshoot costs aside, there were additional marketing expenses, including the early push
for Spacey's Oscar nomination that was canned.
The film was pulled from the AFI Fest, which likely cost Sony six or seven figures.
Fortunately, Plummer more than picked up the slack, becoming the oldest actor to be nominated
for an Oscar.
The first Toy Story was a touching animated movie that helped make Pixar a filmmaking
juggernaut.
Disney and Pixar originally planned to release Toy Story 2 as a 60-minute, direct-to-video
release, much like the studio had done with sequels to Aladdin, Cinderella, The Lion King,
Mulan and even Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Disney simply didn't do big-screen sequels...Yet.
At a screening with Disney executives, they decided it was simply too good for the home
video market.
They opted to change gears and release it in theaters as a 90-minute feature.
With such news, you'd think the production crew would be ecstatic, however, Pixar's John
Lasseter wasn't quite so happy.
He took over the project and rewrote the entire plot in two days.
With an estimated budget of $90 million for the entire movie, one can assume that about
half that amount was used in the nine-month-long fire drill that took place after the previous
yearlong production.
Work on character creation and key environments was already done, but there were also several
notable additions — including the character of Jessie, who was added in the rewrite.
Decades ago, when the internet was in its infancy, a draft of the Scream 2 script was
uploaded to the web during the film's production.
This sent director Wes Craven, the production team, and Miramax into a panic.
Fearing a spoiled ending would ruin the movie, they quickly decided to rewrite and reshoot
a lot of the film.
It set production back by months, with added measures to prevent the new script from being
copied.
Three different endings were filmed to throw everyone off, and as a result, audiences got
both a leaked and a surprise ending to this decent horror classic.
Rewrites, reshoots, and an extra ending certainly contributed a significant chunk to its $24
million production budget.
Superman and Superman II were filmed simultaneously to cut down on production time, but as costs
mounted, Superman II was stopped so producers could focus on the first one.
After Superman proved to be a success, production started again on the sequel.
Well, sort of.
There were a few difficulties, including Marlon Brando wanting more money and Richard Lester
replacing the film's original director, Richard Donner.
Lester quickly scrapped some footage and essentially started over, making the movie his own.
With a final budget of around $54 million, most of that was certainly spent on reshoots.
It created massive production expenses but it resulted in two profitable films that critics
actually enjoyed.
Blade Runner is considered a sci-fi classic that's beloved by millions.
Of course, nothing that great is easy to make.
After a few test screenings failed to impress audiences, several last-minute changes were
made, including the infamous Harrison Ford voiceover.
"They don't advertise for killers in a newspaper.
That was my profession."
The voiceover was so quick, Ford apparently never got to read it in advance.
It was recorded eight times, and he was fairly unhappy about doing it.
There were also plot changes, and the ending was tweaked to make it less mysterious and
more positive.
At $28 million, the film was at least $7 million over budget.
While adding a voiceover to an entire movie might not seem like a monumental cost, the
total added expense left Blade Runner just shy of recouping its money in theaters.
Fortunately for sci-fi fans and the many filmmakers who've since been influenced by the movie,
cult status awaited on the home video market.
35 years after it faded from theaters, it got a sequel almost as widely acclaimed as
the original.
One of the saddest stories surrounding a last-minute movie change involves former Saturday Night
Live star Chris Farley, who was the original voice of Shrek.
At the time of his death, Farley had recorded 80 to 90 percent of his lines.
Fellow SNL alum Mike Myers was quickly cast to replace him.
At Meyers' request, script changes were made to better accommodate his brand of humor.
Myers realized that his initial take on the big green guy wasn't quite right, so he wanted
to re-record his lines with a Scottish accent.
At that point, more than a third of the movie had been animated, meaning mouth movements,
facial expressions and whatever else was in the scene would need to be redone.
The cost was estimated at $4 million to $5 million, which was about 10 percent of the
film's final budget, but it paid off in the end.
Before Marvel started its own film studio, along with the massively successful Marvel
Cinematic Universe, other studios attempted to turn the publisher's characters into blockbuster
franchises.
The results were often less than spectacular.
Case in point: 2003's Daredevil, starring Ben Affleck as Matt Murdock.
Blind lawyer by day, secretly superpowered vigilante by night.
It was never meant to be a big-budget superhero movie, but the success of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man
gave the studio other ideas.
What started as a dark look at the repercussions of violence was toned down for broader appeal.
With a contractual obligation to make the movie PG-13, director Mark Steven Johnson
had to re-edit Daredevil twice.
Test audiences apparently wanted more romance between Daredevil and Elektra, so more quick
cuts were made.
And, again because of the success of the effects spectacle that was Spider-Man, the studio
wanted more visual thrills.
Nearly 30 minutes were chopped, including a subplot involving Coolio.
All of the special effects and edits drove the budget from $50 million to $80 million.
Regardless, it all worked out in the end, as Daredevil not only made enough money to
spawn the Elektra spinoff, but it also led to something more for Affleck and Elektra
actress Jennifer Garner, who were married in 2005.
In Enemy Mine, Louis Gossett Jr. plays an alien named Drac, and Dennis Quaid is Earth
pilot Willis Davidge.
They're stranded together on a distant planet after a battle with — wait for it — each
other.
Naturally, they band together to weather the elements and defeat a common enemy.
The studio was unhappy with early shots from director Richard Loncraine and decided to
halt production after a large portion of shooting was completed.
Execs still loved the concept, actors and story, so director Wolfgang Petersen was brought
in to finish the job.
Or, really, restart the job and then finish it, because the footage, sets, and makeup
weren't up to snuff.
After the studio-mandated overhaul, Enemy Mine's original $17 million budget ballooned
to over $40 million.
It never recouped its costs, earning only $12 million, but it did eventually earn bragging
rights as a cult classic.
Guillermo del Toro's vision for Mimic, which involved humans possessed by a mutant tree
beetle, ended up falling flat with studio execs.
Instead, they envisioned giant killer cockroaches.
Add that fundamental disagreement to the list of other things the studio didn't appreciate,
and the result is what del Toro calls his "imperfect child."
The experience was so bad, he almost quit making movies altogether.
A second unit was reportedly enlisted in case the studio decided to replace him.
With an estimated budget of $30 million, it was generally panned by critics and only made
$25 million back.
Del Toro later got to return to make a Director's Cut, eliminating second-unit shots and reinstating
more atmosphere.
He eventually went on to direct classics like Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth and The Shape of
Water.
With a production budget of $300 million, a slew of iconic superheroes in one movie,
and a ton of talent on and off the screen, Justice League just had to succeed, right?
Well, not exactly.
And that hefty price tag didn't really help either.
Part of the cost resulted from a director swap that became necessary after Zack Snyder
stepped down to deal with a family tragedy.
Writer/director Joss Whedon came in and reshot 15 to 20 percent of the movie, costing at
least $25 million.
Having to reshoot scenes is expensive enough, but bringing a cast back in from other projects
can lead to even more problems, such as the Henry Cavill hairy-upper-lip debacle.
The actor, reprising his role as Superman, had since grown a mustache for Mission: Impossible
— Fallout.
As a result, Warner Bros. was forced to digitally remove Cavill's mustache, adding to the already
inflated budget.
All that extra time and money didn't help Justice League with critics, and though the
movie still made hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office, the fallout inspired Warner
Bros. to re-examine its approach and retool its plan for the DC Extended Universe.
You can call this one a mixed blessing.
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