The 25 Most Expensive Movies Ever Made

• Cost adjusted for inflation: $305 Million
• Box Office: $460.4 Million

2006's X-Men: The Last Stand kicks this list off as after factoring inflation into the production cost, the total to make the film was $305 million. At the time of its release, X-Men: The Last Stand was the highest-grossing film in the series which is obviously considered a success, however, the movie itself only grossed roughly $150 million more than what it costs to make. Make of that what you will.

• Cost adjusted for inflation: $306 Million
• Box Office: $419.6 Million

It's no question that the box office success of its predecessor, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe which grossed $745 million, is was led to a bigger budget for its sequel The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. Unfortunately Prince Caspian didn't experience the same numbers as the first film, with the movie barely breaking even once you factored inflation into the equation. The cost to produce the film sat at $306 Million, and the box office revenue generated totaled $419 million.

• Cost adjusted for inflation: $309 Million
• Box Office: $1.515 Billion

When you factor in inflation, it cost over $300 million for Furious 7 to get made. Was it worth it? We'd say that it was considering the film grossed slightly over $1.5 billion at the box office. The Fast & Furious series always perform very well at the box office, but the passing of Paul Walker was definitely a factor in everybody rushing to watch because this was the last movie that had him in it.

• Cost adjusted for inflation: $310 Million
• Box Office: $789 Million

If you want to get technical, both Spider-Man 2 and 2005's King Kong share the 24th spot on the most expensive movies list because they both spent $310 million after inflation, but since Spider-Man 2 grossed more (and Tobey McGuire Peter Parker is the editor's favorite), that's what we're featuring. The hype for Spider-Man 2, especially with this being pre-MCU as far as films go, was beyond real. You had to be there.

• Cost adjusted for inflation: $316 Million
• Box Office: $393.2 Million

While the trailer for Solo: A Star Wars Story looked good (at least to us), sadly the hype and numbers didn't match at the box office. After inflation, the cost to make this movie was $316 million, and it only grossed $393.2 million at the box office—meaning it just barely broke even.

• Cost adjusted for inflation: $316 Million
• Box Office: $873.9 Million

The hype was certainly real for 2016's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which grossed $873.9 million at the box office, though despite that high amount, was still considered an underperformance by critics. If that $873 million was a disappointment, then it's probably safe to say that $1 billion and above it was what they were looking to gross in revenue.

• Cost adjusted for inflation: $323 Million
• Box Office: $2.923 Billion

In 2023 we know that Avatar is going to bring in historic numbers at the box office, but in 2009, the $323 million spent on the production was considered a gamble since nobody knew how it was going to perform. Avatar received rave reviews with a box office grossing of $2.923 billion, making it the second highest-grossing film of all time.

• Cost adjusted for inflation: $327 Million
• Box Office: $1.066 Billion

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, another 2000s sequel that you had to be there in real time to experience. With the massive success of the first film The Curse of the Black Pearl, which grossed $654.3 million at the box office, to say the sequel was anticipated would be an understatement, and the results showed at the box office. Dead Man's Chest brought in $1.066 billion in revenue, which was even more than the first film.

• Cost adjusted for inflation: $330 Million
• Box Office: $264.2 Million

Sometimes you spend a lot on making a movie and it surpasses what you spent. Sometimes you spend a lot on a movie and it only breaks even. Sometimes you spend a lot on a movie and it grosses less than what you spent to make it. 1995's Waterworld falls into that category as $330 million was spent to make the film after inflation, and only $264.2 million was grossed at the box office. Why did it underperform? The answer to that is kind of unclear—especially since the film performed decent in video sales. We really don't know what happened here.

• Cost adjusted for inflation: $336 Million
• Box Office: $284. 1 Million

2012's John Carter is another example of a grossing disappointment as it cost $336 million to make, but only brought in $284 million. Our opinion? John Carter just didn't seem captivating enough to go see at the theater. There wasn't anything particularly groundbreaking about the film, and it felt like something you could catch at home on DVD. That's not to say the movie wasn't good—it was interesting, but not necessarily the type of film that you would make it a point to see at the theater. 2012 was still the early ages of streaming, so we definitely think a movie like this would do better in today's climate on streaming platforms.

• Cost adjusted for inflation: $341 Million
• Box Office: $934.5 Million

Of course 2009's Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince performed well at the box office. There are certain things in life that are guaranteed, and during that era, anything named Harry Potter was guaranteed to be pulling in ginormous numbers at the box office.

• Cost adjusted for inflation: $340 Million
• Box Office: $697.8 Million

The Fast & Furious franchise is on this list again for 2023's Fast X, which took $340 million to make, and pulled in $697 million at the box office. The success of Fast X means we already have a confirmation on the next installment of the series, which is scheduled to be released in 2025.

• Cost adjusted for inflation: $349 Million
• Box Office: $592.4 Million

It took $349 million to make Tangled after inflation, and it was worth it as the film grossed $592.4 million at the box office, making it the eighth highest-grossing film of the year. Tangled also received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song at the 83rd Academy Awards.

• Cost adjusted for inflation: $358 Million
• Box Office: $1.334 Billion

We have another tie breaker for the 15th spot, and these two are even closer then Spider-Man 2 and King Kong. Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Justice League both cost $358 million dollars to make in 2017. Justice League was released in November 2017, and Star Wars: The Last Jedi was released in December 2017. Justice League grossed $657.9 million at the box office, and Star Wars: The Last Jedi grossed...$1.334 billion, making it the winner of this tight battle.

• Cost adjusted for inflation: $364 Million
• Box Office: $895 Million

The 2000s iteration of Spider-Man was guaranteed box office success, and Spider-Man 3 was no different from its predecessors, pulling in $895 million at the box office on a budget that was $364 million after inflation.

• Cost adjusted for inflation: $364 Million
• Box Office: $2.32 Billion

Was it really a surprise that Avatar : The Way of the Water commanded as much as what it did at the box office? Yes and no. Yes because there was such a huge gap between the release of the first Avatar and the follow up, and a lot had changed within those thirteen years. No, because there was still such a huge amount of anticipation, and people just simply love Avatar. Period.

• Cost adjusted for inflation: $365 Million
• Box Office: $2.257 Billion

James Cameron has the honor of being in the top 25 for three different movies, and one of them is 1997's Titanic. Titanic used a $365 million budget after inflation, and grossed $2.257 billion making it the highest-grossing film of all-time until 2009's Avatar, which was directed by...James Cameron.

• Cost adjusted for inflation: $379 Million
• Box Office: $2.052 Billion

Not gonna lie—it was almost like time stopped when Avengers: Infinity War came out. Almost everybody in the MCU coming together for one movie? You had to know this was going to crush it at the box office. And crush at the box office it did. A lot of money was spent, but even more money was made.

• Cost adjusted for inflation: $407 Million
• Box Office: $2.799 Billion

And if time stopped for Infinity War, then it did more than stop when Endgame came out the following year. We're going to make a statement that might seem controversial, but it's one that we're standing behind full force—Endgame was the most anticipated film of the 2010s. That $2.799 billion speaks for itself, and for almost two years, Endgame actually held the record as the highest-grossing film of all time. Once again, a lot of money spent, but a lot more money made.

• Cost adjusted for inflation: $407 Million
• Box Office: $961.6 Million

Surely you can't be surprised at another Pirates of the Caribbean movie making this again now can you? At one point, At World's End was the most expensive movie ever made with $407 million spent after inflation, and it more than recouped with $961.6 million.

• Cost adjusted for inflation: $451 Million
• Box Office: $1.403 Billion

Age of Ultron seems so long ago compared to where we are now in the MCU, and in the grand scheme of things it was a long time ago considering we're heading towards the ten year mark. Due to the groundbreaking success of future MCU films, it can be hard to forget that Age of Ultron grossed over a billion at the box office, and that at one point it was the fifth highest-grossing Marvel Film. Ultron did its thing.

• Cost adjusted for inflation: $451 Million
• Box Office: $1.077 Billion

2019's Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is one of the most costly films of all time, but the final grossing number is still a relative disappointment as it was the lowest-growing installment of the sequel trilogy. It's not uncommon for the last movie in trilogies to not do as well as the first two films because you run into the issue of people reaching fatigue with the series after a certain amount of time (especially since there's typically some years in between films). All things considered, $1.077 billion as the final number is quite alright.

• Cost adjusted for inflation: $492 Million
• Box Office: $1.046 Billion

Oh, look—it's another Pirates of the Caribbean film on this list, and it's the third costliest film in history at the time of this writing as after inflation, the total cost to make was $492 million. A whopping $492 million, but just wait, it the price gets higher with these final two movies on our list.

• Cost adjusted for inflation: $503 Million
• Box Office: $1.31 Billion

Coming in at number two is 2018's Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom. You can read more about the movie in our Jurassic Park article here, but basically the Jurassic Park franchise was revived in 2015 with Jurassic World, and Fallen Kingdom was its follow-up. As it stands, the movie is the second most-expensive to date as after inflation the final cost was $503 million. We repeat, $503 million. But wait, it gets even better than that.

• Cost adjusted for inflation: $552 Million
• Box Office: $2.071 Billion

Coming for that number one spot is 2015's Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which after inflation was a total of $552 million to make. With that amount spent, a major box office success needed to happen, and it did, grossing $2.071 billion in revenue.