In the world of cinema, cost-cutting is the first lesson that should be taught to directors and producers alike but still, there are some movies with some mindboggling budgets. Here are five of them...
I. Pirates of the Caribbean series
One of the most decorated film series of all time with a budget of 1.2 billion dollars (all 5 movies). Sounds extreme? doesn't matter because it earned about 4.63 billion dollars against its budget even with its last movie barely breaking even. The beautiful setpieces, real-life models and props, and some quirky makeup may be the reason behind its whopping budget but CGI and live-action animation certainly made a dent in the producer's pocket.
II. The Avengers' series
As a marvel fan, I can say that every penny poured into the production of this series was worth it. What Marvel studios had done in the span of 10 years makes me feel lucky to have lived this era of Marvel movies. It can be seen that investment was not just made in the production stage but also in the pre-production stage. Experienced, reputed directors were hired along with a posse of flourishing screenwriters. Money and time were both invested and the end result was about 7.79 billion dollars in earnings against the budget of 1.51 billion dollars!!
III. Titanic
The movie that made Leonardo DiCaprio on the global map sure didn't come cheap. With a budget of 200 million, the movie racked up around 2.1 billion dollars worldwide. Obviously, the major chunk of the budget was spent on the actual ship but more than that CGI drained all the cash because back in 1997, CGI was still a fresh phenomenon, and thus, it came at an extensive price. On top of that, the director-actor fee alone went up to 50 million. A fun fact is that it took more money to make Titanic (the movie) than Titanic - the actual ship that had sunk in 1912.
IV. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The Harry Potter series started out as a more practical dramatized series just to earn a lot of money and turn into a more action-packed series. The transition was too steady to pinpoint but based on financial data, The 6th installment took things to the next level. with a budget of around 250 million dollars, the movie was filled with heavy CGI, over the top set pieces, props, and costumes. Unfortunately, the movie could only earn around 301 million dollars against its budget. Although it was well-received by the critics and viewers alike, it failed to garner mass attention.
V. Tangled
This is perhaps one of the weirdest entries on this list. Of course, animated movies do cost a lot but Tangled took it to another level. With a budget of 200 million dollars, it earned a well enough sum of 550 million dollars against it. There are mainly two reasons behind these extreme budget costs:
Usually, the combination of hand-drawn and animation software is very pricey. Tangled was one of such few movies that had used such a formula.
The production of this film was delayed, shut down and, deliberately postponed due to a variety of reasons.
These are some of the priciest movies ever made. Price doesn't always ensure quality but these movies sure do. I recommend you all to watch them all and see for yourself whether these extraordinary budgets were worth it or not.