Top 10 most expensive movies ever made

We’re going to follow Jerry Maguire’s lead and show you the money – from Star Wars to Avatar, these are the top 10 most expensive movies of all time.

Hollywood budgets have been a big topic of conversation in recent months; people are struggling to grasp how something like Secret Invasion can cost more than $212 million, while The Creator features awe-inspiring imagery for a fraction ($86 million) of the price.

Whether it’s the expanding scope of action – both practical and CGI, the latter of which often seems to be rushed out and overused on these pricey productions – or actors’ bloated salaries, films and TV shows are more expensive to make than ever.

So, we’ve perused the history of movies to put together a list of the top 10 most expensive ones ever made – and their budgets are absolutely eye-watering.

Top 10 most expensive movies ever made (unadjusted)

Disney

Below, you’ll find a list of the top 10 priciest movies of all time – but crucially, these are unadjusted for inflation.

In simple terms, we’re only taking into account the budget’s figure at the time it was made – movies were once made for the low millions, but if you measured that against the cost of living and goods over the years, it would be a far bigger number.

1. Star Wars: The Force Awakens – $447 million
2. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom – $432 million
3. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – $416 million
4. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides – $379 million
5. Avengers: Age of Ultron – $365 million
6. Avengers: Endgame – $356 million
7. Avatar: The Way of Water – $350 million
8. Fast X – $340 million
9. Avengers: Infinity War – $325 million
10. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End / Justice League (2017) / Star Wars: The Last Jedi – $300 million

According to Deadline, Avatar 2 has a budget of around $460 million, which would place it right at the top of this list. However, this could also include costs towards the third movie, so we went for its widely accepted budget.

Top 10 most expensive movies ever made (adjusted)

Universal Pictures

Now it gets a little more complicated: we’ve listed the 10 most expensive movies, with their budgets adjusted for inflation.

There are some myths surrounding the budgets of older movies; some people allege Metropolis would cost $200 million in today’s money, when it would actually cost closer to $24 million, and others have claimed Sergei Bondarchuk’s War and Peace cost $100 million back then – aka 1966! – which would amount to more than $940 million today – this isn’t true.

1. Star Wars: The Force Awakens – $552 million
2. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom – $503 million
3. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides – $492 million
4. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – $476 million
5. Avengers: Age of Ultron – $451 million
6. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End – $423 million
7. Avengers: Endgame – $407 million
8. Avengers: Infinity War – $379 million
9. Avatar: The Way of Water – $350 million
10. Fast X – $340 million

Weirdly, the list isn’t all that different – if you’re only looking at the top 10 that is. Inflation has been rampant over the past decade, so newer movies still have a stronghold on the bigger budgets, but there’s a few lower down the list worth looking at: Titanic cost $200 million in the late ’90s, today it’d cost $365 million; Spider-Man 3 cost $258 million in 2007, today it’d cost $364 million; and Waterworld – once considered the biggest flop of all time – had a budget of $172 million in 1995, which amounts to $330 million in current money.

You can also find our list of the highest-grossing movies of all time here, and the biggest R-rated movies ever made here. You can also check out our other TV & movies coverage here.