These are the most expensive films ever, and in the Netherlands it is a war film

Like everything in the world, movies are getting bigger, slicker and more expensive. Yet one oldie bravely holds its own on the list of the most expensive films ever made. Not entirely surprising: the most expensive Dutch film is nowhere to be seen.

In the past, film budgets were largely consumed by the construction of enormous film sets. Although more and more film worlds are computer-generated these days, this has not reduced costs. On the contrary: 3D, IMAX and CGI have only driven up costs further. See the most expensive films ever made here.

The most expensive movie ever made: Star Wars: The Force Awakens

The most expensive film ever made Star Wars: The Force Awakens, a 2015 film with (pricey) A-actors such as Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Oscar Isaac. About $40 million was spent on their wages. Other major costs were the salaries of the directors, the film sets (such as the construction of the Millennium Falcon spaceship) and production and post-production.

All together this amounts to a budget of $447 million. No effort was spared for the lenders, because with a proceeds of more than 2 billion dollars, much more was earned than was spent.

The top ten most expensive films ever made

The top ten most expensive films ever made are filled with films about space battles, dinosaurs, pirates, superheroes and an old sunken ship.

1. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015): $575 million
2. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018): $524 million
3. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011): $513 million
4. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019): $496 million
5. Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015): $496 million
6. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (2007): $441 million
7. Avengers: Endgame (2019): $424 million
8. Avengers: Infinity War (2018): $394 million
9. Titanic (1997): $380 million
10. Spider-Man 3 (2007): $379 million

The list is dominated by franchise films. One is relatively certain that the returns will be high, so a dollar more or less is not such an issue. In addition, eight out of ten films were made after 2010, even though the list has been adjusted for inflation. Like everything in life, movies are becoming increasingly expensive. A little further down the list, however, we also find an oldie that stands tall among all the modern IMAX violence.

The film Cleopatra from 1963, with Elizabeth Taylor in the role of the Egyptian pharaoh, cost 310 million dollars adjusted for inflation. This places the film at number 33 in the ranking of the most expensive films of all time. A true blockbuster avant la lettre So.

The most expensive Dutch film: Black Book

The most expensive Dutch film, Black book from 2006, is nowhere to be seen. However, we also think the budget is good Black book quite substantial at 17.8 million euros. Fortunately, it was money well spent, because Paul Verhoeven’s film, starring Carice van Houten, was declared the best Dutch film in history in 2008. The film also appears in the list of best war films on Netflix according to IMDb.