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Due to the secretive nature of
Hollywood accounting Hollywood accounting (also known as Hollywood bookkeeping) is the opaque or " creative" set of accounting methods used by the film, video, television and music industry to budget and record profits for creative projects. Expenditures can be infl ...
, it is not clear which film is the most expensive film ever made. '' Star Wars: The Force Awakens'' officially holds the record with a net
budget A budget is a calculation plan, usually but not always financial plan, financial, for a defined accounting period, period, often one year or a month. A budget may include anticipated sales volumes and revenues, resource quantities including tim ...
of $447 million, although it is possible that '' Avatar: The Way of Water'' costs more if its price tag is towards the upper-end of its reported $350–460 million production costs. The third and fourth '' Avengers'' films ('' Infinity War'' and '' Endgame'') stand as the most expensive
back-to-back film production Back to Back or back-to-back may refer to: Film and theatre * ''Back to Back'' (film), a 1996 American action film * Back-to-back film production, the practice of making two films as a unified production * Back to Back Theatre, an Australian thea ...
, with combined production costs of over $1 billion, according to one of the directors. Inflation, filming techniques and external market forces affect the economics of film production. Costs rose steadily during the
silent era A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, wh ...
with '' Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ'' (1925) setting a record that lasted well into the sound era. Television had an impact on rising costs in the 1950s and early 1960s as cinema competed with it for audiences, culminating in 1963 with ''
Cleopatra Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator (; The name Cleopatra is pronounced , or sometimes in both British and American English, see and respectively. Her name was pronounced in the Greek dialect of Egypt (see Koine Greek phonology). She was ...
''; despite being the highest earning film of the year, ''Cleopatra'' did not earn back its costs on its original release. The 1990s saw two thresholds crossed, with ''
True Lies ''True Lies'' is a 1994 American action comedy film written and directed by James Cameron. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as Harry Tasker, a U.S. government agent, who struggles to balance his double life as a spy with his familial duties, ...
'' costing $100 million in 1994 and ''
Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British ocean liner that sank in the early hours of 15 April 1912 as a result of striking an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United States. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers a ...
'' costing $200 million in 1997, both directed by
James Cameron James Francis Cameron (born August 16, 1954) is a Canadian filmmaker, who resides in New Zealand. He is a major figure in the post-New Hollywood era and often uses novel technologies with a Classical Hollywood cinema, classical filmmaking styl ...
. Since then it has become normal for a tent-pole feature from a
major film studio Major film studios are production and distribution companies that release a substantial number of films annually and consistently command a significant share of box office revenue in a given market. In the American and international markets, ...
to cost over $100 million and an increasing number of films are costing $200 million or more. This list contains only films already released to the general public and not films that are still in production or post-production, as costs can change during the production process. Listed below is the net negative cost: the costs of the actual filming, not including promotional costs (i.e. advertisements, commercials, posters, etc.) and after accounting for tax subsidies. The charts are ordered by budgets that have been independently audited or officially acknowledged by the production companies where they are known; most companies will not give a statement on the actual production costs, so often only estimates by professional researchers and movie industry writers are available. Where budget estimates conflict, the productions are charted by lower-bound estimates.


Most expensive productions (unadjusted for inflation)

Only productions with a net budget of over $200 million in nominal U.S. dollars are listed here. Due to the effects of
inflation In economics, inflation is an increase in the average price of goods and services in terms of money. This increase is measured using a price index, typically a consumer price index (CPI). When the general price level rises, each unit of curre ...
, all of the films on the chart have been produced in the 21st century.


Most expensive films (adjusted for inflation)

The productions listed here have their nominal budgets adjusted for
inflation In economics, inflation is an increase in the average price of goods and services in terms of money. This increase is measured using a price index, typically a consumer price index (CPI). When the general price level rises, each unit of curre ...
using the
United States Consumer Price Index The United States Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a family of various consumer price indices published monthly by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The most commonly used indices are the CPI-U and the CPI-W, though many alterna ...
taking the year of release. Charts adjusted for inflation are usually ordered differently, because they are dependent on the inflation measure used and the original budget estimate. The Soviet ''
War and Peace ''War and Peace'' (; pre-reform Russian: ; ) is a literary work by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy. Set during the Napoleonic Wars, the work comprises both a fictional narrative and chapters in which Tolstoy discusses history and philosophy. An ...
'', released in four parts across 1966 and 1967, is sometimes cited as the most expensive production ever: Soviet claims stating it cost $100 million (estimated at nearly $700 million accounting for inflation forty years after its release) were circulated in the American press during its showing there. However, its financial records reveal it cost slightly more than $9 million (about $60–70 million in today's money). Another notable omission is ''
Metropolis A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural area for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications. A big city b ...
'', the 1927 German film directed by
Fritz Lang Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), better known as Fritz Lang (), was an Austrian-born film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety Obituari ...
, often erroneously reported as having cost $200 million at the value of modern money. ''Metropolis'' cost $1.2–1.3 million at the time of its production, which would be about $ million at 2021 prices, according to the German
consumer price index A consumer price index (CPI) is a statistical estimate of the level of prices of goods and services bought for consumption purposes by households. It is calculated as the weighted average price of a market basket of Goods, consumer goods and ...
. Officially acknowledged figure.


Record-holders

Throughout the
silent era A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, wh ...
, the cost of film-making grew steadily as films became longer and more ambitious and the techniques and equipment became more sophisticated. It is not known for certain which was the first film to cost $1 million or more to produce, and several myths have grown over time: D. W. Griffith's ''
Intolerance Intolerance may refer to: * Hypersensitivity or intolerance, undesirable reactions produced by the immune system * ''Intolerance'' (film), a 1916 film by D. W. Griffith * ''Intolerance'' (album), the first solo album from Grant Hart, formerly ...
'' (1916) was reputed to have cost $2 million, but accounts show that it only cost $385,906.77; additionally, '' A Daughter of the Gods'' (1916) was advertised as costing a million dollars, but '' Variety'' estimated its true cost at $850,000. The first film that is confirmed to have had a $1 million budget is ''
Foolish Wives ''Foolish Wives'' is a 1922 American erotic silent drama film produced and distributed by Universal Pictures under their Super-Jewel banner and written and directed by Erich von Stroheim. The drama features von Stroheim, Rudolph Christians, ...
'' (1922), with the studio advertising it as "The First Real Million Dollar Picture". The most expensive film of the silent era was '' Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ'' (1925), costing about $4 million—twenty-five times the $160,000 average cost of an MGM feature. It is unclear which sound-era production superseded it as the most expensive film, although this is commonly attributed to '' Hell's Angels'' (1930), directed by
Howard Hughes Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American Aerospace engineering, aerospace engineer, business magnate, film producer, and investor. He was The World's Billionaires, one of the richest and most influential peo ...
; the accounts for ''Hell's Angels'' show it cost $2.8 million, but Hughes publicised it as costing $4 million, selling it to the media as the most expensive film ever made. The first film to seriously challenge the record was ''
Gone with the Wind Gone with the Wind most often refers to: * Gone with the Wind (novel), ''Gone with the Wind'' (novel), a 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell * Gone with the Wind (film), ''Gone with the Wind'' (film), the 1939 adaptation of the novel Gone with the Wind ...
'', reported to have cost about $3.9–4.25 million, although sources from the time state that ''Ben-Hur'' and—erroneously—''Hell's Angels'' cost more. ''Ben-Hur'' was definitively displaced at the top of the chart by '' Duel in the Sun'' in 1946. The 1950s saw costs rapidly escalate as cinema competed with television for audiences, culminating with some hugely expensive epics in the 1960s that failed to recoup their costs. A prominent example of this trend was ''
Cleopatra Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator (; The name Cleopatra is pronounced , or sometimes in both British and American English, see and respectively. Her name was pronounced in the Greek dialect of Egypt (see Koine Greek phonology). She was ...
'' (1963), which lost money on its initial release despite being the highest-grossing film of the year. Since the 1990s, film budgets have once again seen a dramatic increase as the use of
computer-generated imagery Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is a specific-technology or application of computer graphics for creating or improving images in Digital art, art, Publishing, printed media, Training simulation, simulators, videos and video games. These images ...
(CGI) has become commonplace in big-budget features.


See also

*
Film finance Film finance is an aspect of film production that occurs during the Filmmaking#Development, development stage prior to pre-production, and is concerned with determining the Valuation (finance), potential value of a proposed film. In the United ...
* List of biggest box-office bombs *
List of highest-grossing films Films generate income from several revenue streams, including movie theater, theatrical exhibition, home video, Broadcasting rights, television broadcast rights, and merchandising. However, theatrical box office, box-office earnings are the p ...


Notes


References


External links


The 30 Most Expensive Movies Ever Made
at
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Hollywood's Most Expensive Movies
at
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Most Expensive Films Lists of films by type