From 1988 to 2007, there were 14 times that a new film became the most expensive film ever made up to that point, not adjusting for inflation. That’s impressive considering that from 1946 to 1987, only eight films succeeded in becoming the most expensive film ever made. Budgets for blockbusters are ballooning to incredible proportions. The stakes seem to be huge for every summer movie to perform amazingly.
The current record holder is Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, the third film in that series, and definitely the worst of those three. It cost an estimated $332 million in adjusted dollars. No other movie has cracked the $300 million mark – yet. But it seems like $200 million budgets are so common that few people stop and think about what a huge number that is.
In the past six years, no movie has been bold enough to challenge Pirates of the Caribbean’s place as the most expensive, but they certainly haven’t shown any signs of shrinking. Is $300-ish million as high as they’ll go? Is there a natural barrier to movie budgets that prevents them from getting much higher than they already are?
I’d like to talk about the factors that could keep film productions from getting too much more costly or ensure they continue to rise in the coming years. Continue reading
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