List of most expensive films
It is not clear which film is the most expensive ever made, due to the secretive nature of Hollywood accounting. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker holds the official record with a net budget of $490 million. The production of the third and fourth Avengers films—Infinity War and Endgame—stands as the most expensive back-to-back film production, with a cost of over $1 billion.
Inflation, filming techniques, and external market forces affect the cost of film production. Costs rose steadily during the silent era; 1925's Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ set a record that lasted well into the sound era. Television had an impact on rising costs in the 1950s and early 1960s as cinema competed with it for audiences; 1963's highest-earning film, Cleopatra, did not recoup its costs on its original release. The 1990s saw two thresholds crossed: 1994's True Lies cost $100 million and 1997's Titanic cost $200 million, both directed by James Cameron. The 21st century has so far seen the $300 million and $400 million thresholds crossed and it has become normal for a tent-pole feature from a major film studio to cost over $200 million, and an increasing number of films now cost more than $300 million.
This list contains only films already released to the general public and not films that are still in production or post-production, as costs can change during the production process. Listed below is the net negative cost: the costs of the actual filming, not including promotional costs and after accounting for tax subsidies. The charts are ordered by budgets that have been independently audited or officially acknowledged by the production companies where they are known; most companies will not give a statement on the actual production costs, so often only estimates by professional researchers and movie industry writers are available. Where budget estimates conflict, the productions are charted by lower-bound estimates.
Most expensive productions (unadjusted for inflation)
Productions with a net budget of over $200 million in [Real versus Real versus nominal value (economics)|nominal value (economics)|nominal] U.S. dollars are listed here. Due to inflation, all of the films on the chart have been produced in the 21st century.| Rank | Titles | Years | Cost | Refs and notes |
| 1 | Avengers: Infinity War Avengers: Endgame | 2018–19 | $1,000 | |
| 2 | The Hobbit trilogy | 2012–14 | $623 | |
| 3 | Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End | 2006–07 | $450 | |
| 4 | The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 and Part 2 | 2014–15 | $300 | |
| 5 | The Lord of the Rings trilogy | 2001–03 | $260 | |
| 6 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 and Part 2 | 2010–11 | $250 | |
| 7 | The Matrix Reloaded The Matrix Revolutions | 2003 | $237 | |
| 8 | The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 and Part 2 | 2011–12 | $230 |
Most expensive films (adjusted for inflation)
The productions listed here have their nominal budgets adjusted for inflation using the United States Consumer Price Index taking the year of release. Charts adjusted for inflation are usually ordered differently, because they are dependent on the inflation measure used and the original budget estimate.The Soviet War and Peace, released in four parts across 1966 and 1967, is sometimes cited as the most expensive production ever: Soviet claims stating it cost $100 million were circulated in the American press during its showing there. However, its financial records reveal it cost slightly more than $9 million. Another notable omission is Metropolis, the 1927 German film directed by Fritz Lang, often erroneously reported as having cost $200 million at the value of modern money. Metropolis cost $1.2–1.3 million at the time of its production, which would be about $ million at 2021 prices, according to the German consumer price index.
Officially acknowledged figure.
Record-holders
Throughout the silent era, the cost of film-making grew steadily as films became longer and more ambitious and the techniques and equipment became more sophisticated. It is not known for certain which was the first film to cost $1 million or more to produce, and several myths have grown over time: D. W. Griffith's Intolerance was reputed to have cost $2 million, but accounts show that it only cost $385,906.77; additionally, A Daughter of the Gods was advertised as costing a million dollars, but Variety estimated its true cost at $850,000. The first film that is confirmed to have had a $1 million budget is Foolish Wives, with the studio advertising it as "The First Real Million Dollar Picture".The most expensive film of the silent era was Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, costing about $4 million—twenty-five times the $160,000 average cost of an MGM feature. It is unclear which sound-era production superseded it as the most expensive film, although this is commonly attributed to Hell's Angels, directed by Howard Hughes; the accounts for Hell's Angels show it cost $2.8 million, but Hughes publicised it as costing $4 million, selling it to the media as the most expensive film ever made. The first film to seriously challenge the record was Gone with the Wind, reported to have cost about $3.9–4.25 million, although sources from the time state that Ben-Hur and—erroneously—Hell's Angels cost more. Ben-Hur was definitively displaced at the top of the chart by Duel in the Sun in 1946.
The 1950s saw costs rapidly escalate as cinema competed with television for audiences, culminating with some hugely expensive epics in the 1960s that failed to recoup their costs. A prominent example of this trend was Cleopatra, which lost money on its initial release despite being the highest-grossing film of the year. Since the 1990s, film budgets have once again seen a dramatic increase as the use of computer-generated imagery has become commonplace in big-budget features.
| Year | Production | Cost | Refs and notes |
| 1922 | Foolish Wives | $1.104 | |
| 1922 | When Knighthood Was in Flower | $1.5 | |
| 1923 | The Ten Commandments | $1.476 | |
| 1925 | Ben-Hur | $3.967 | |
| 1939 | Gone with the Wind | $3.9–4.25 | |
| 1946 | Duel in the Sun | $5.255 | |
| 1947 | Forever Amber | $6.375 | |
| 1951 | Quo Vadis | $7.623 | |
| 1956 | The Ten Commandments | $13.272 | |
| 1959 | Ben-Hur | $15.175 | |
| 1962 | Mutiny on the Bounty | $19 | |
| 1963 | Cleopatra | $31.115 | |
| 1978 | Superman | $55 | |
| 1988 | Rambo III | $58–63 | |
| 1988 | Who Framed Roger Rabbit | $58.166 | |
| 1990 | Total Recall | $50–60 | |
| 1990 | Die Hard 2 | $62–70 | |
| 1991 | Terminator 2: Judgment Day | $94 | |
| 1994 | True Lies | $100 | |
| 1995 | Waterworld | $172 | |
| 1997 | Titanic | $200 | |
| 2005 | King Kong | $207 | |
| 2006 | X-Men: The Last Stand | $210 | |
| 2006 | Superman Returns | $204 | |
| 2006 | Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest | $225 | |
| 2007 | Spider-Man 3 | $258 | |
| 2007 | Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End | $300 | |
| 2011 | Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides | $379 | |
| 2015 | Star Wars: The Force Awakens | $447 | |
| 2018 | Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom | $465 | |
| 2019 | Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker | $490 |
| Year | Production | Cost | Refs and notes |
| 1990 | Back to the Future Part II and Part III | $80 | |
| 2003 | The Matrix Reloaded The Matrix Revolutions | $237 | |
| 2003 | The Lord of the Rings trilogy | $260 | |
| 2007 | Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End | $450 | |
| 2014 | The Hobbit trilogy | $623 | |
| 2019 | Avengers: Infinity War Avengers: Endgame | $1,000 |