Is there some kind of reliable (ish) online source for production budgets for movies? I do realize that there are good reasons for not being too specific about them, but I’m having a hard time finding anything. (I thought Box Office Mojo had them, but I’m not seeing what I’m looking for.)
Specifically, I’m looking for numbers for Avatar (I’m seeing $200M, and I’m seeing $250M) and The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus.
Any ideas?
Just 'cause noone else has asked the obvious - does an IMDB professional subscription give you this?
I cannot vouch for the accuracy, but The Numbers lists production costs for movies in addition to domestic and worldwide gross. I would think that they would be somewhat valid as the site focuses solely on the financials of the film industry.
They do have this disclaimer:
The budget for Avatar seems to be distorted everywhere you look. I suspect that what happened is this:
James Cameron is assigned a huge, almost unprecedented, initial budget. Perhaps 200 million.
Somewhere near the middle of production, he asks for more. He convinces the Execs that the “assets” and technology he is developing will mean cost savings in the long run, for both his and other future movies. They give him another 50 million.
The actual final budget probably tipped over even that edge, let’s say 265 million all up.
Then there’s advertising budget, which has been known to shoot into the stratosphere for some films. I could believe it was 100 million for Avatar. Technically the advertising budget should not be included with the production budget, but I think many of the media outlets who had some kind of agenda against the film before it was released, and there were quite a few, merged them in their quotes anyway, to add fuel to their fire.
So now it’s all confused. Some people are taking this merged number and then adding an estimated advertising budget on it again, unaware of it already being included, which is where the 450 million level numbers were from.
Anyways, this is just my guesswork, based on the wide variation of numbers, and who was saying what, and when.
I do believe it’s the highest production budget for a single movie, though it doesn’t take into account inflation - there will always be a new winner in those stakes, every five years or so - but it’s more like 250 million than the nearly 500 million you see spoken about elsewhere.
JKilez, good source, thanks – that had some useful info. (They said $247M for production, $460M for production + marketing, for Avatar.)