# What was the highest-budget movie ever made? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 20, 2006, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-highest-budget-movie-ever-made/349070 "2006-03-20T01:06:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![athelas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@athelas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/athelas)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-highest-budget-movie-ever-made/349070/1 "2006-03-20T01:06:27Z")
As the title says, what film was the most expensive to produce (this does not count distribution and advertising costs)? ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-highest-budget-movie-ever-made/349070/2 "2006-03-20T01:15:33Z")
Are you adjusting for inflation? Does the Lord of the Rings trilogy count as one film? (as they were all made in one long sequence) ---
**Author:** ![athelas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@athelas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/athelas)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-highest-budget-movie-ever-made/349070/3 "2006-03-20T01:19:27Z")
No, I guess I’ll have to limit it to those having a single release date or something. Corollary: was this movie, whatever it was, any good? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-highest-budget-movie-ever-made/349070/4 "2006-03-20T01:20:15Z")
There are a couple of [lists](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_films) of expensive films on Wikipedia, both inflation-adjusted and not. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-highest-budget-movie-ever-made/349070/5 "2006-03-20T01:27:53Z")
Whom do you believe? [http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/content\_pages/record.asp?recordid=56184](http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/content_pages/record.asp?recordid=56184) [http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/records/budgets.html](http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/records/budgets.html) ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-highest-budget-movie-ever-made/349070/6 "2006-03-20T03:26:14Z")
> [@Cardinal](#): > > Whom do you believe? > > [http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/content\_pages/record.asp?recordid=56184](http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/content_pages/record.asp?recordid=56184) > > [The Numbers - Movie Budgets, Most Expensive Movies, Most Profitable Movies, Biggest Money-Losing Movies](http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/records/budgets.html) It cost 10 million dollars to make “The Brown Bunny”? ---
**Author:** ![NoCoolUserName](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5fc32e/32.png) [@NoCoolUserName](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoCoolUserName)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-highest-budget-movie-ever-made/349070/7 "2006-03-20T04:20:24Z")
> [@Cardinal](#): > > …[The Numbers - Movie Budgets, Most Expensive Movies, Most Profitable Movies, Biggest Money-Losing Movies](http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/records/budgets.html) 'Em are some darned funny numbers! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-highest-budget-movie-ever-made/349070/8 "2006-03-20T04:57:22Z")
> [@astro](#): > > It cost 10 million dollars to make “The Brown Bunny”? Where’d the extra money go, they must’ve spent $300 in gas money, a couple hundread on camera guy and …hmmm somone left that movie with a lot of money in their pocket. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-highest-budget-movie-ever-made/349070/9 "2006-03-20T05:23:57Z")
Of the top 10 inflation adjusted: Cleopatra (1963) $286,400,000 Titanic (1997) $247,000,000 Waterworld (1995) $229,000,000 Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) $216,400,000 Spider-Man 2 (2004) $210,000,000 King Kong (2005) $207,000,000 Wild Wild West (1999) $203,400,000 Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997) $198,800,000 The 13th Warrior (1999) $190,700,000 Troy (2004) $184,300,000 4 are universally considered to have sucked, one was an ok film but not particularly successful and one was the biggest chick flick ever. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-highest-budget-movie-ever-made/349070/10 "2006-03-20T14:38:43Z")
_Cleopatra_ (1963) got mixed reviews, won four Oscars, and was nominated for five more (including Best Picture and Best Actor). I’ve seen it twice, and I like it. ---
**Author:** ![scm1001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@scm1001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scm1001)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-highest-budget-movie-ever-made/349070/11 "2006-03-20T15:25:56Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Of the top 10 inflation adjusted: > Cleopatra (1963) $286,400,000 > Titanic (1997) $247,000,000 > Waterworld (1995) $229,000,000 > Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) $216,400,000 > Spider-Man 2 (2004) $210,000,000 > King Kong (2005) $207,000,000 > Wild Wild West (1999) $203,400,000 > Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997) $198,800,000 > The 13th Warrior (1999) $190,700,000 > Troy (2004) $184,300,000 > > 4 are universally considered to have sucked, one was an ok film but not particularly successful and one was the biggest chick flick ever. [quick teleport into cafe society] Only 4??? :eek: methinks you are being far too generous. Only King Kong would come close to being worth the money spent on it though. I havent seen the 13th warrior (has anyone?) but I have had the misfortune to see the rest. [back to GQ] ---
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-highest-budget-movie-ever-made/349070/12 "2006-03-20T17:03:07Z")
I watched Tro for 20 minutes, then sent it back to Netflix.