The cost of the most expensive films of all time reaches 3-digit millions. Whereas in earlier times film studios used their high expenditures for advertising purposes, today they try to downplay their budget and talk down. A lot of films are made during these past years and there are many platforms to watch tv shows and movies like iptv subscription which offers variety of shows and movies.
Nevertheless, blockbuster spending continues to rise, and the film industry continues to boom. The top 10 most expensive films of all time should clarify whether a high budget can determine the success of a film or whether the studio bosses haven’t been too big. These are the most expensive films of all time as of 2015.
THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY
“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” with a budget of 257.2 million U.S. dollars. In 2012, the first part of the novel film of the same name conquered cinemas. However, as the film has grossed more than USD 1 billion worldwide, the high budget can be hurt.
AVATAR – DEPARTURE TO PANDORA
9th place of the most expensive films of all time goes to the 2009 film “Avatar”. The film, which is mostly shot with 3D cameras, is still considered the most successful film of all time, with a record of USD 2.78 billion on a budget of USD 261 million.
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN
Filmed in 2006, “Curse of the Caribbean 2” re-recorded its budget of 263.7 million U.S. dollars with a record box office score of more than a billion U.S. dollars.
WATERWORLD
Waterworld, the end-time science fiction film, was originally intended to be shot at a budget of USD 175 million, but this rose to USD 271.3 million. Due to disputes on set and initially poor recording results, only a slight profit could be achieved in the end.
HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE
The sixth part of the successful Harry Potter series was able to work with a budget of USD 275.3 million, thus only slightly surpassing the estimated budget of USD 250 million. The success was right for the studio bosses: The film grossed 933.96 million U.S. dollars worldwide.
RAPUNZEL – NEWLY BLOWN AWAY
Who would have thought this: a cartoon takes 2nd place as the most expensive film of all time. The 50th film from Disney even threatened to fail. The technical implementation led to some disputes within the team, but the cost of 281.7 million U.S. dollars was re-recorded with 577 million dollars.
SPIDER-MAN 3
The most expensive comic book adaptation of all time, with a budget of USD 293.9 million, was able to meet expectations. Despite relatively poor reviews, “Spider-Man 3” poured 891 million U.S. dollars into the coffers.
TITANIC
The cult film Titanic exceeded its original budget of USD 200 million by almost USD 100 million (USD 294.3 million). However, this is likely to have been less disruptive with a record result of USD 1.8 billion. Titanic was long considered the most successful film of all time before it was replaced by “Avatar – Awakening to Pandora”.
CLEOPATRA
Astonishingly, an older film made it to number two: with expenditures of USD 339.5 million due to “Cleopatra” exceeding the estimated budget of USD 44 million by many times. This sum could not be recovered until 1966, which almost led to the financial ruin of the production company 20th Century Fox. In the meantime, however, the film has recorded revenues of USD 445.8 million.
CURSE OF THE CARIBBEAN – AT THE END OF THE WORLD
The third installment of the “Curse of the Caribbean” series, also by Walt Disney Pictures, swallowed up the highest budget of all films shot so far, at USD 341.8 million. Due to bad weather conditions and the subsequent interruptions in filming, the film costs increased significantly. The film grossed a whopping of US-Dollar 961 million, but could not completely repeat the success of the second part of the film series.
