80 mil for an actor 70 million dollars for re-edits and beautifully rendered mermaids
are just some of the ways these are the most expensive movies to ever come out of hollywood
who would have thought you could spend 422 million dollars in today's money
making a fourth movie based on an amusement park ride pirates of the caribbean on stranger tides
is the most expensive movie to date in 2022 and brought in over a billion at the box office making
the gamble worth it for disney being the first in the film series to use 3d cameras similar to
the ones used in avatar and helped justify some premium imax 3d ticket prices 10 companies were
involved with the film's visual effects some of the 1112 shots of cgi included complicated
water effects and digital ships they may have invested so much in cgi because they learned the
harsh lessons of 1995's water world the former big budget heavyweight champ which cost 300 million to
make in today's money water world was shot almost entirely at sea instead of in studios or just off
the coast where it's much safer water world's cast and crew were very suddenly thrust into
horrid sea conditions off the coast of hawaii as if they really were seasoned sea men and seawomen
illnesses ran rampant the boat carrying actors gene triple horned and tina magenero fell apart
and almost drowned them veteran stuntman laird hamilton got lost at sea and eventually found
and the lead actor himself almost died from being blasted with sea water while he was suspended 40
feet in the air all this and a lot more bulked up the number of shoot days and overall cost of the
kevin costner epic so yeah not too much filming at sea for on stranger tides they also rendered major
environmental extensions to enhance the story changing weather conditions making cliffs and
waterfalls weren't cheap or easy to put together to help moviegoers suspend their disbelief the
mermaids at whitecap cost a pretty penny to bring alive they were portrayed by eight models on land
as well as 22 olympic caliber synchronized swimmers stunt doubles and silicon sculptors
oh yeah and did we mention that over 13 percent of the film's budget went to johnny depp himself
that's 55.5 million like the christian dior sauvage rockstar really needed the cash right
but as we all know it's not all about who needs it most but who sells the most tickets and the dept
man's name on the marquee opens up those wallets real wide the film in the series that it proceeded
at world's end also cost a hefty 362 million adjusted for today's dollars back in 2007 making
it the third most expensive movie of all time the second some would argue is 1963's cleopatra
the ancient egyptian epic starred the biggest star in hollywood at the time elizabeth taylor
44 mill at the time and 339.5 mill in 2022 was the production budget that made it so
although it's hard to compare since so much has changed in filmmaking since jfk was president
no computer generated images back then it was all shot on costly celluloid and all those hundreds
and maybe even thousands of extras were really there at the time of shooting no cgi crowds in
those days before the 356 million dollar end game and the 316 million dollar infinity war there was
the 386 million age of ultron the 2015 equivalent of taking all your marvel toys and smashing them
together is still the most expensive movie in the world's most valuable franchise the mcu has raked
in almost 23 billion as of 2021 and continues to grow with the eternals and spider-man no way home
still in some theaters at the time of writing what costs so much well over 3 000 visual effects shots
and 10 different visual effects companies play into it and the 15 000 people who worked on this
film obviously didn't do it for free practical effects took some serious greenbacks to pull off
like the scene where a truck cab flips over a bus was all done with real machines as well as the car
crashes done in traffic scenes the biggest expense that final cgi battle the flying ai robot army
versus the avengers in the fictional nation of sokovia was overwhelming maybe a little confusing
at times but made the 20 premium ticket prices seem a little more worth it oh yeah and robert
downey jr's 80 million dollar paycheck is well worth noting as well if thanos were aware of the
swollen costs he would have snapped his fingers and cut that budget in half age of ultron still
has a cult following though and has a special and unique place in the marvel cinematic universe
it's still raked in 1.4 billy though justifying the triple xl mcu budgets to come on the other
side of the superhero pond warner brothers's 2017 justice league was the 307 million dollar answer
to disney's mcu the dc extended universe film only took in 657 million dollars at the box office
making it a relative fail as many suspect that when you factor in the unpublished enormous
marketing budget warner brothers probably found themselves looking at a 100 million dollar loss
since so much rides on the success of this mega superhero franchise for warner brothers
including the sales of toys posters warner brothers interactive video games and tons of other
merchandising as well as future ticket sales for movies like the flash the suicide squad and wonder
woman movies amongst others were also in jeopardy so they made the risky and expensive decision to
double down on a sort of revival justice league is the only film on this list to get a 70 million
dollar reboot only four short years later with its snyder cut the four by three frame 4-hour
and 2-minute re-cut hbo max release filled in story gaps had redone some special effects and
featured new scenes with some of those scenes even re-shot with characters not previously in the film
like jared leto's joker warner bros redemption song was very well received and helped create
higher hopes for more dc eu films in the future estimated at costing 275 to 300 million solo a
star wars story is surprisingly the most expensive of all 12 theatrically released star wars films
the space western film did change director's mid-shoot with chris lord and christopher miller
being fired and replaced by hollywood veteran ron howard who insisted on expensive reshoots
and a creative vision more in line with that of the producers many suspect lucasfilm's heavy
hand in the film's creative direction led to it being the lowest performing film of all the
franchise han solo's backstory film grossed only 393.2 million worldwide making it the first star
wars film to be a box office bomb when you factor in the marketing budget as it's estimated to have
lost close to 77 million the rise of skywalker the latest film in the now almost 44 year old main
star wars story line cost 275 million dollars to make that's a far cry from a new hope's 11 million
budget in 1977 which adjusted to 2022 money is about 45 million just a little less than the
sopranos prequel the many saints of newark's 50 million dollar budget whoa a new hope earned 460
million in 77 1.5 billion in today's cash whereas the rise of skywalker pulled in just over 515
million back in 2019. it is difficult to compare as it was a different time which the original was
considered to be ahead of whereas solo as well as the rise of skywalker are generally perceived
to be just another installment in their time you know what i mean all 12 films cost an estimated
1.6 billion dollars to make and brought in 10 million 318 million at the box office factor
in merch sales as you know you can get a star wars anything from underwear to dog costumes and you're
looking at an exorbitant amount of money disney's john carter was a 307 million dollar sci-fi epic
that shot for the stars oscar-winning director andrew stanton of finding nemo and wally fame
directed the adaptation of writer edgar rice burroughs as a princess of mars series
on the surface the film had everything it needed to be a box office smash including a bright young
star named taylor kitsch as its lead but failed to deliver at the billion dollar market needed to be
considered a success as its fellow 2012 release the avengers did raking in 1.5 billion john
carter grossed 281 million worldwide and when you factor in the huge disney level marketing
costs the film is estimated to have lost 200 mil making it one of hollywood's most prolific flops
in its 112 year or so history disney was hoping to launch a new franchise with nine books his
worth of material to draw from but scrapped it based on its poor performance at the box office
and they reverted the rights of the novel back to edgar rice burroughs estate why did it fail
so hard audiences felt the characters fell flat and wooden the alien planets unremarkable and
the story was found to be confusing weird and not really worth the mental effort to decipher
it seems that movies that do really well at the box office including a few that we've mentioned
have clear simple stories it's like steve jobs and many others over the years have said simplicity
is the ultimate sophistication unlike water world john carter doesn't fall into that rare
category of bad movie you don't regret seeing because of the spectacle of it it falls into
the don't waste your money or your time nothing to see here movies even the dr seuss based the
lorax film outperformed john carter at the time still like the real titanic john carter remains
in the public consciousness because of how big it went and how big it failed speak of the devil
the simple love story told in james cameron's titanic cost 200 million dollars to make in 97.
that's about 312 million dollars today that's one of the rare movies that saw costs flying
out of control and the director putting out a cut producer's thought way too long
to actually succeed and in the end it brought in 2.2 billion at the box office good for them
you