Original photo by BFA/ Alamy Stock Photo
In the modern era of blockbuster filmmaking, production budgets have skyrocketed and show few signs of slowing down. The 10th movie in the Fast & Furious franchise, for example, cost $340 million — that’s $140 million more than the reported budget for F9 (released just two years prior in 2021), and almost 10 times the cost of the first Fast & Furious movie, which came out in 2001. It’s a staggering amount of money, but modern film budgets, especially blockbusters, routinely pass the $300 million mark.
Making a film is a monumental undertaking — you only need to sit through the credits of a major studio movie to see how many people are involved. Costs include the initial script and development, licensing, salaries for the big-name players (including the producer, director, and the A-list actors), production costs (and salaries for the hundreds, if not thousands, of people involved), and depending on the type of movie, the enormous cost of special effects. And that’s before distribution and marketing, which can easily add tens of millions more.
Placing a precise figure on the cost of any particular movie is a tricky business, as studios aren’t always forthcoming with such information. Trade insiders make educated guesses, but hidden marketing costs, tax breaks, accounting tricks, and conflicting stories mean public information about movie budgets are usually estimated. But the really big movies attract a huge amount of attention, and their gargantuan production budgets give us a fairly good idea of where they rank among the most expensive movies of all time. Here are six of the most costly productions, all of which had budgets that far surpassed the $300 million mark.
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015): $365 Million
Upon its release in 2012, The Avengers shattered all box office expectations and solidified the franchise as a true behemoth. Three years later, its sequel, Age of Ultron, had a lot to live up to. Marvel Studios invested a massive $365 million into the production, in part to pay for the star-studded cast — Robert Downey Jr.’s earnings alone were reported somewhere between $50 million and $80 million.
Massive sets, numerous large-scale action sequences, and a boatload of special effects (Age of Ultron had more than 3,000 VFX shots, more than any other film in the Marvel franchise at the time) made the movie even more expensive. Shooting the film in multiple international locations, including Italy, South Africa, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and Bangladesh, further increased the cost. Despite being the lowest-grossing of the Avengers films, Age of Ultron still earned an estimated $1.4 billion.
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011): $379 Million
At the time of its release, the fourth installment in the Pirates franchise was the most expensive film ever made, with a total cost of $379 million. Research by Forbes puts its total cost as high as $410.6 million when not taking into account the tax credit due to the film’s production in the United Kingdom. The sky-high costs could be chalked up to various factors, including the need to capture scenes at sea, the use of full-scale ships, multiple shooting locations in Hawaii, the U.K., Puerto Rico, and California, extravagant special effects, and shooting in 3D. Plus, Johnny Depp’s salary alone was reported to have been $55 million. Despite mixed reviews, the movie earned more than $1 billion globally.
Avengers: Endgame (2019): ~$400 Million
Avengers: Endgame was the direct sequel to Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and — take a deep breath — the 22nd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. No one knows quite how much Endgame cost, but estimates have it somewhere between $350 million and $400 million, most likely falling toward the higher end of that range. As with other Marvel Studios movies, the enormous ensemble cast, near-unprecedented visual effects work, and the logistical challenges of coordinating such an enormous production at multiple international locations, all added up to make it one of the most expensive movies of all time.
More Interesting Reads
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023): ~$402 Million
Walt Disney Studios hasn’t been particularly forthcoming with the finances involved in making the fifth and (supposedly) final installment in the Indiana Jones film series, especially because the movie was a financial disappointment. According to Screen Rant, Dial of Destiny had a budget of $387.2 million, while Forbes has the figure as high as $402 million.
The film made $384 million at the box office, with Disney’s box office losses reportedly equalling $134.2 million (studios receive around half of theater takings). The movie’s high production costs were partly due to the extensive digital de-aging effects for Harrison Ford, which significantly increased the special effects budget. But the biggest factor was filming during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, which required costly safety protocols at every level of production.
Avatar: The Way of Water (2022): $460 Million
Director James Cameron has always been known for pushing the boundaries of filmmaking. His long-awaited sequel to Avatar was no exception, with groundbreaking visual effects technology including revolutionary underwater motion capture techniques and the development of a neural network-based facial system to help blue-skinned humanoid Na’vi characters appear in photorealistic quality. The movie was ambitious to say the least, and such high ambitions come with a cost: in this case, a reported $460 million. But the investment paid off; the movie grossed more than $2.3 billion worldwide, making it just the sixth movie in history to reach the $2 billion mark.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015): $533 million
The return of the Star Wars saga to the big screen was hugely anticipated and came with a massive price tag to match. As a Star Wars movie, the production naturally involved numerous practical sets and props as well as cutting-edge visual effects, all of which ramped up costs. Extensive location shooting in Abu Dhabi, Iceland, Ireland, and the U.K. also added to the tally.
Harrison Ford was paid between $10 and $20 million, while Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill earned somewhere in the low seven-figure range. Disney Studios also invested heavily in marketing, eager to ensure the franchise relaunch was a success. All of this added up to a total production budget of an astounding $533.2 million — but it was worth the expenditure. The Force Awakens quickly broke records, making more money in a single day than any other movie to that point. It continued to break numerous box office records and went on to gross more than $2 billion worldwide.
Tony is an English writer of nonfiction and fiction living on the edge of the Amazon jungle.
top picks from the optimism network
Interesting Facts is part of Optimism, which publishes content that uplifts, informs, and inspires.
