What is the most expensive movie ever produced?

It’s not cheap to make a movie. Even films made on ‘shoestring’ budgets still require thousands to fund them, which most creatives can’t just magic out of their back pockets. Luckily for some filmmakers, a certain level of success allows them to access big budgets so that they can create Hollywood blockbusters where the sky really is the limit.

Mainstream audiences love epic productions of mammoth proportions, complete with mind-blowing special effects and expansive settings, as evidenced by the popularity of Marvel and other franchises like Star Wars and the DC Universe. These kinds of films draw us into a world of pure escapism and fantasy that are so far removed from our own lives that we can’t help but want more.

In many ways, the popularity of these movies – which become more than pieces of cinema but capitalistic entities, earning copious amounts of money and lining the pockets of millionaires and billionaires – are indicative of our need to escape from the trappings of capitalism. It’s an endless cycle – we want to escape the mundanity of our lives by indulging in these big-budget blockbusters, but in doing so, we fund a machine that continues to shove more flashy shows of wealth and excess into our faces.

That’s not to say that big-budget movies aren’t worth our time. Many of them have dedicated fan bases for a reason; they’re impressive achievements within the world of cinema, pushing the limits of what art can be and possessing qualities that make us feel passionate or emotional. Movies like Star Wars and Titanic were made on huge budgets, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t have strong feelings towards at least one of them – either positive or negative.

While these films, alongside titles like Avatar, the Avengers series, and the Jurassic World franchise might seem like worthy frontrunners for the title of the most expensive film ever made, the answer is actually much harder to pinpoint. However, the movie that most people believe to be the most expensive is Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which cost around $447million – an insane budget for just one movie.

So, what movie has the biggest budget adjusted for inflation?

Yet, we also have to take into consideration the movie budgets that have now been adjusted for inflation. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides was the most expensive film ever made at the time of its release in 2011, costing around $422m. People often still label the movie the most expensive ever made, but it seems like Star Wars: The Force Awakens has now beaten it to the post. 

Similarly, Cleopatra, released in 1963, had an incredibly large budget, especially for the time. Costing around $350m when adjusted for inflation, the industry had never seen a movie with such an astonishingly large budget before. These days, however, that budget is rather common among big blockbuster epics. 

…and what is the most expensive movie per minute?

Yet, if we’re talking about the most expensive movie in terms of each minute, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom has earned that title. Made on a budget of $432m, if you crunch the numbers, each minute of the movie cost a staggering $3,375,000.

That’s a rather incredible feat to behold, and if we break that down even further, each second equates to $56,250. The movie, released in 2018, grossed over $1billion, taking the Jurassic Park franchise to even greater heights. So, while Star Wars: The Force Awakens appears to be the movie made on the largest budget in the history of cinema, it’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom that holds another impressive feat of its own.

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