What is the most expensive film to directly adapt a Shakespeare script? None of these “inspired by” bits like Ten Things I Hate About You or The Lion King.
My guesses are: For a tragedy, Baz Luhrman’s Romeo + Juliet. For a history, Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V. For a comedy, Branagh’s Much Ado About Nothing. We may never see Midsummer Night’s Dream or The Tempest get the full-on Pixar treatment, but who has spent the most to do right by the Bard so far?
William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet used the traditional script, but updated the setting to contemporary times. It cost $14.5 million to make in 1996, and grossed more than ten times that.
Franco Zefferelli’s version of R&J cost $850,000 in 1968 (about $6.1 million in today’s dollars) and grossed about 15x that.
What about Branagh’s uncut, 70mm version of Hamlet? 18m per wiki.
How about Warner Brothers version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1935? I haven’t been able to find out what it cost to produce, but whatever it was, multiply it by about 26 to get today’s dollars.
Titus starring Anthony Hopkins?
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Branagh’s 1989 Henry V must be a contender, as the OP mentions, what with the battles and all those extras. Adjusted for inflation (using a Bank of England calculator, since the movie was made in the U.K.), it looks to have cost around $22 Million in current USD.
Of course, once we start adjusting for inflation, Olivier’s 1944 version of Henry V cost an equivalent of ~£20.7 million, or ~$26 million USD.
Julie Taymor’s adaptation of Titus Andronicus starring Anthony Hopkins is listed on Wikipedia as having a budget of $25 million. (And it only grossed $2 million, ouch.)
I was going to mention Titus Groan, but couldn’t imagine it costing more than Henry V. Ah well.
Romeo + Juliet stands as the most expensive of the tragedies. How about the comedies?
Let me know if I’ve got my sources or my back-of-the-envelope math wrong, but: Wiki puts the budget of Olivier’s RICHARD III at £6 million, which — converted to dollars and adjusted for inflation — is over, what, $150 million today?
Ah yes, Steerpike was one of Shakespeare’s greatest characters.
Here’s a list of movies based on Shakespeare’s plays:
Here’s a list of the most expensive films of all time. No Shakespeare film has ever made more than 200 million in non-adjusted-for-inflation U.S. dollars. No Shakespeare film has ever made more than 209 million in adjusted-for-inflation U.S. dollars:
What, you don’t recognize Avengers: Age of Ultron as a clear pastiche of Troilus and Cressida?
Philistine.
I saw it in the cinema - and wished I hadn’t. I got bored and fell asleep, oh dear.
*Ran *(1985) is not a direct adaptation of King Lear, but it’s more than “inspired by.” It was the most expensive Japanese film up to that time with a budget of $11 or $12 million. Using the latter figure, one inflation calculator gave me a figure of $28.6 million in 2019 dollars.
Did you theatre-dream of a gore-covered Titus flushing fistfuls of money down the toilet?
2004 The Merchant of Venice had a budget of $30 is probably the top overall (unadjusted) and comedy.
So did I. I was literally the only person in the theater! Only the second time I can remember that happening.
$30 million
Branagh’s* Henry V* was done for about fourpence, and the battle site was a piece of shrubland round the back of Shepperton studios.
The answer to the OP is probably the 1955 version of Richard III made by Lawrence Olivier (if you adjust for inflation). It lost a lot of money, although it’s possible that showings of it years later eventually made a profit. This was despite the fact that it was well publicized and reviewed when it came out, even getting a national American TV showing at the same time as the release. I suspect that film production companies decided at that point that it was hopeless to ever make another expensive Shakespeare film, since it would again lose money.