Movie making is no cheap business.
From paying the stars to hiring venues to specialist filming equipment and rights to music, including artist insurance from Howden and lunch for the extras, there seems to be no end of bills to pay.
However, some movies surpass all others when it comes to the costs behind them. Here are five of the most expensive ever made:
5. Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Cost: $280 million
The budget and expenditure was pretty high for this film but in the end it doesn’t compare to the $1.4billion gross made worldwide – making it the sixth highest grossing film of all time. Featuring an all-star cast, impressive SFX and directed by the genius behind cult shows such as Buffy – Joss Whedon – Age of Ultron fought its way to the top without much resistance.
4. Tangled (2010)
Cost: $281 million
The fun Disney animated movie, about Rapunzel’s quest to find her dream, had a huge expenditure bill mainly because the film took so long to write. There was lots of debate at Disney HQ about the storyboard, which was completely scrapped at one point and started again. It took the writers ten years to settle on an idea (imagine if that project you’re working on at the moment took that long) and on top of that, the animators then had to work on drawing all that hair.
3. Titanic (1997)
Cost: $286 million
James Cameron’s heart breaking tale of the doomed ship was an epic feat of SFX and period accuracy when it came to costumes and set. All his hard work paid off when Titanic took home 11 Oscars and was the first to break the $1 billion mark at the box office. While the film was a great success, the making of it was met with plenty of trouble including illness, budget concerns, tantrums and someone spiking a lobster chowder for a post shoot party with the drug PCP.
2. Spider-Man 3 (2007)
Cost: $293 million
No matter how much money was thrown at this film, it couldn’t take away the fact that Tobey McGuire was a questionable choice for the role of Spider-Man from the start and that the films needed a reboot after the second instalment. We suppose they took that advice because the franchise is on its third Spider-Man actor now after dropping Andrew Garfield and handing over everything to Marvel. SFX are probably the main reason why this film cost so much to create, with the Sandman and Venom requiring lots of green screen work.
1. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011)
Cost: $397 million
Featuring the likes of Penélope Cruz, Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush this was always going to be an expensive movie to create, on top of the exotic filming locations and special effects.
Depp reportedly took home $55,000,000 for his role in the film, which despite the copious amount of eyeliner and hair beads he wore wasn’t all that well received by cinema goers and is definitely the weaker of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. But we guess basing a film on a ride at Disney World can only take you so far.
Back in 2011 he even admitted that he is being overpaid for his role in the franchise. We wonder what he’ll get paid for the fifth film, which is due to set sail in 2017 with Orlando Bloom returning as Will Turner.