10 Most EXPENSIVE Films Ever Made!

- If you're anything like me,
you love to watch movies.
But, if you're also anything like me,
before I did the research for this video,
you have no idea just how expensive some of them are.
Here are the 10 most expensive films ever made.
Number 10 is Cleopatra.
The historic American-made movie, Cleopatra,
which premiered on June 12th, 1963,
was quite a spectacle for its time,
since it was the most expensive movie project
anyone had ever worked on or even seen.
It cost thirty-one point one million dollars to make,
which, if made in 2017, and was adjusted for
today's inflation, would come to around
two hundred and forty-eight point five million.
The production put 20th Century Fox
in a state of near bankruptcy,
when it ended up spending twenty-nine million
dollars more than it expected to.
The film featured a star-studded cast,
with a young Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra the 7th,
and other famous names of the era,
such as Sir Rex Harrison and Richard Burton.
Taylor was paid a record-breaking one million dollars,
and due to large delays in shooting,
it became a seven million dollar payday,
which is close to fifty-six million by today's rates.
Luckily, the movie did gross
fifty-seven point eight million at the box office
which would be like earning around
four hundred and sixty-two million dollars today.
That's all it takes to get that much more
of a payday, seven times the earnings?
Man, if I was on cast, I would just be
secretly breaking cameras and stuff
and be like, "oops, it's delayed again.
Another million, bring it on."
Number nine is Waterworld.
The Kevin Costner, post-apocalyptic
epic, Waterworld, premiered on July 28th, 1995,
with an estimated production budget of
one-hundred and seventy-two million dollars,
which, adjusted for today's inflation, would be more like
two hundred and seventy-six million dollars.
At the time, it was the most expensive
film ever made and it was very nearly
a financial disaster for Universal Studios,
earning only eighty-eight million dollars
at the North American box office.
Waterworld actually proved to be
more of a success in the foreign market
than the domestic, earning
one hundred and seventy-six million,
bringing its worldwide total to
two hundred and sixty-four million dollars
or four hundred and twenty-four million
by today's standards.
The film's total expenses came in at around
seventy-five million dollars over budget,
due to huge water enclosure sets
being destroyed by a hurricane
and Costner, who was also producing,
calling for complete re-dos
of the film's soundtrack.
Sounds like a film maker's nightmare,
but hey, at least it's a classic
by today's standards, right?
(laughs)
Nobody makes fun of that movie.
(clears throat)
Number eight is John Carter.
If you don't remember the movie,
John Carter, the 2012 movie,
starring Taylor Kitsch and Willem Dafoe,
it's mostly because it was one of the most expensive
box office fails of all time for Disney.
With marketing and production costs of
three hundred and fifty million dollars,
John Carter had some big spending recovery
to undertake at the box office.
When the film opened on March 9th, 2012,
it received, uh let's just say, mixed reviews,
due to the story and plot issues.
And from there, it only went on to earn
seventy-three million dollars in North America.
Overseas, the film recouped more of its losses,
by earning two hundred and eleven million dollars,
bringing the worldwide total to
two hundred and eighty-four million
and leaving a loss of still sixty-six million.
The film's losses resulted in the resignation
of the chairman of Walt Disney Studios, Rich Ross.
Not to be confused with Rick Ross, huh.
John Carter was supposed to be the first movie
of a trilogy, which was of course canceled
because of the high cost and very low return.
Sometimes Disney's movie magic ends up
becoming a magical movie failure.
[imitating Mickey Mouse] Ho-ho, who's paying for this one?
Someone's gonna die. Huh-ha.
Number seven is Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
Accio one point eight billion galleons!
(clears throat)
If you're a Harry Potter fan,
it may interest you to know
that the sixth entry in the Harry Potter
movie franchise, the Half-Blood Prince,
came at an extreme cost to the production company.
So extreme, in fact, that it became
the most expensive Harry Potter film in the series,
and the seventh most expensive film of all time.
When Half-Blood Prince was released on
July 15th, 2009, its budget topped
two hundred and seventy-five million dollars,
a figure that's one hundred million dollars
more than its predecessors, and equal to
the total of the final entries of
Deathly Hallows, Part one and two combined.
Part of this extra expense was due to the actors,
who had been with the series from the start,
having their contracts renegotiated,
including lead actor, Daniel Radcliffe,
who earned between fourteen million
and twenty million dollars, just for his role.
But the film ended up making over
nine hundred and thirty-four million dollars
worldwide at the box office, making it
a stupidly ridiculous success.
That's a whole lot of monies,
Crappio my Pants-o.
I'm sure that's a spell.
Number six is Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.
Since 2003, the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise
has been a giant money magnet for Walt Disney Studios
and producer Jerry Bruckheimer.
It's also been a giant sinkhole for money,
taking hundreds of millions of dollars
in order to secure the acting talent,
impressive CGI effects and
fantastical and exotic sets.
The third film in the series, which premiered on
May 25th, 2007, set a brand new high
for movie spending with a whopping
three hundred million dollar price tag.
Lead actor, Johnny Depp, who plays the
infamous Captain Jack Sparrow,
was paid around sixty-five million dollars
for his role in what was originally
to be the last Pirates movie.
Add that to the paychecks for stars like
Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom
and you already have one-third of the movie budget spent.
Fortunately for Disney, the movie grossed
three hundred and nine million dollars
in North America alone, with
six hundred and fifty-four million dollars
overseas, for a total of over
nine hundred sixty-three million dollars.
[Pirate Accent] You don't actually think
Johnny Depp was working for free, did ya?
(pirate laugh) No.
Number five is Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Typically, superhero movies cost a pretty penny
to film for the big screen, but when you
invite all the most popular Marvel heroes
into the same film, it can cost, uh,
an arm and a leg, or maybe just all of your limbs.
Avengers: Age of Ultron premiered on May 1st, 2015,
and cost three hundred and sixteen million dollars
for all of the stars, sets, and over
three thousand CGI shots and production talent
that came together for one of the biggest
superhero movies of all time.
Robert Downey Jr. alone earned
forty million dollars as Iron Man,
followed by Scarlett Johansen,
who got twenty million as Black Widow,
while the other actors who played
Thor, Hulk, Hawkeye, and Captain America earned
a total of twenty one point two million dollars together.
The film, which was written and directed by Joss Whedon,
was received favorably by critics and earned a whopping
one point four billion dollars worldwide at the box office,
making it the seventh highest grossing film of all time.
Avengers, Assemble, to the bank.
Let's go.
Number four is Tangled.
Disney's computer animated take on Rapunsel, Tangled,
released on November 24th, 2010, had a production budget
of two hundred and eighty-one million dollars
and became the fifth most expensive movie ever made.
Rapunsel was the first official Disney princess
to be fully rendered in 3-D and much of the film's cost
went into developing the computer graphic engines
specifically tailored to the film's aesthetic.
The digital artists worked to blend the artistic
painted style of 2-D animation with the
motion and depth of 3-D, opting to go for
a moving, painted world look, rather than the
photo-realistic Disney princess movie.
One of the biggest and most expensive issues
that plagued the animators was with
the creation of realistic hair physics,
a process that took six years to solve,
but the switch to 3-D proved to be
a success and Tangled racked in
two hundred point eight million dollars in North America,
and three hundred and ninety point nine million worldwide,
for a total of over five hundred and ninety-one million.
Oh my god!
I'm gonna make a movie about hair.
(record scratches)
Not my own, obviously.
Number 3 is Spider-Man 3.
Spider-Man 3, the last Spider-Man film
in director Sam Raimi's trilogy,
starring Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, and James Franco
premiered on May 4th, 2007.
Writer and director Raimi decided to
exit the Spider-Man movie franchise with a bang,
or at least the third most expensive
movie production budget of all time,
spending two hundred and ninety-three million dollars.
The budget, when adjusted for inflation in 2017,
comes to three hundred and four point two million dollars,
virtually tying it with the expenses
used in creating the Titanic.
Lead actor, Tobey Maguire, agreed to reprise his role
as Peter Parker for a cool fifteen million dollars,
following the success of the first two films in the trilogy.
The giant spend for the Marvel hero blockbuster paid off,
with a worldwide box office gross of just under
eight hundred and ninety-one million dollars,
making it the highest grossest Spider-Man movie
of all time, unless the reboot,
Spider-Man Homecoming, somehow manages to dethrone it.
See, look?
I can be upside-down too.
Fifteen million dollars, please.
It's just that easy.
Number two is the Titanic.
This famous history epic by James Cameron
was, and is still, one of the most
well-known movies of all time
and one of the most expensive too.
Premiering on December 19th, 1997, Titanic,
starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet,
was the most expensive film ever made at the time.
The overall production cost hit
two hundred million dollars, which would be equal
to just under three hundred and five million dollars
by today's inflation.
Cameron actually contracted the company that
built the original Titanic, to help him
build a scale replica that was more
film-worthy than it was sea-worthy.
Entire rooms, complete with intricate decoration and props,
were all created from scratch at an incredible cost.
Though 20th Century Fox was worried about the cost,
and over three hour runtime of the film,
Titanic became a massive box office hit, making over
six hundred million dollars in North America alone,
and one point two billion dollars worldwide,
bringing the worldwide total to one point eight billion.
Okay, that's all well and good, but
can we just state the obvious really quick?
What did they do with the ship
when the movie was done filming?
I mean, you've got a gigantic, Titanic replica.
It's just, it seems like a waste.
What'd they do, just let it sink?
Tear it apart?
I'm very confused.
And number one, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.
Since the third Pirates movie wasn't
mind-blowingly expensive enough for Disney
and Jerry Bruckheimer productions,
they decided to double down on their box office gamble
and spend four hundred and three million dollars
for the fourth installment.
In Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,
actor, Johnny Depp, was called upon again
to reprise his crowd-pleasing role
of Captain Jack Sparrow, for this time, brace yourself,
fifty-five point five million dollars,
while regular supporting characters were set aside
and replaced by new characters.
Stranger Tides extravagant production
and marketing budget actually did pay off,
drawing in a worldwide box office total
of over one billion, forty-six million dollars.
The film's crazy budget incorporated over
one thousand, one hundred shots of
computer-generated imagery, 3-D cameras,
exotic destination filming, and
a soundtrack done by Hans Zimmer.
It's considered to be one of the
most expensive films of all time so far,
and despite mixed reviews, it profited hugely.
And that's it for this episode.
I really hope you guys enjoyed it and,
as always, on the right you'll find
two of my most recent videos that you can
press or click on your screen right now
if you wanna watch some more.
And other than that,
I hope you guys have a great day
and I'll see you in the next episode.
Bye!
(makes noise)

10 Most EXPENSIVE Films Ever Made!

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