20 Most Expensive Movies Of All Time

/ Comments (0) / June 15, 2012

Due to the secretive nature of Hollywood accounting it is not clear which film is the most expensive film ever made. The cost of film production was mostly stable prior to World War II, with Ben-Hur (1925) setting an early record, which lasted well into the sound era, for over twenty years. Costs started to escalate due to the effects of inflation and as television started to compete with the cinema for audiences, culminating in 1963 with Cleopatra which did not earn back its $44 million production costs despite being one of the highest earning films of the year. Cleopatra is still often cited as the most expensive film of all time, costing over $300 million when adjusted for inflation.

This list contains only the films that are already released to the general public, and no films that are still in production, post-production or just announced films, for the reason that these costs can still change in the production process. Listed below is the negative cost: the costs of the actual filming, and not including promotional costs (i.e. advertisements, commercials, posters, etc.). The charts are ordered by official budget amounts where they are known. Most studios, however, will not give a statement on the actual production costs, so only estimates by professional researchers and movie industry writers are available.