Sometime last year, George Lucas predicted that movie budgets would no longer be going up, since the studios would finally realise that it's possible to make a bigger profit with movies with lower budgets, as long as the subject was interesting enough. Fans of the big blockbuster movies that are the main staple of any movie year started worrying. We all love our small, independent movies, but if you are in your local multiplex with a big bucket of popcorn on your lap, you want to see a huge movie with an insane budget. But judging from the list of this year's most expensive blockbusters, they don't have to start worrying just yet.
For this article, I took a look at the ten most expensive blockbuster movies of the years since 2000, added those budgets to a total and then looked at which year was the most expensive for any movie studio trying to cater to the fans of real popcorn entertainment. It was interesting to see that the total rose quite significantly every year, until 2006, when the total actually went down. The combined budget of the ten most expensive movies was 'just' $ 1,092 billion dollars in 2000, rising to a record $ 1,487 billion in 2005, only to dip back to $ 1,366 billion in 2006. Popcorn-fans afraid of a trend starting don't have to worry too much, however, since the total is back up in 2007, with the number so far standing at $ 1,455 billion. Since movie budgets have a tendency of rising before a movie is over, it's still very well possible that this year will break the record.
The rise in total budget is mainly attributable to Spider-Man 3, which has a budget of around $ 250 million, almost double the budget of the second movie on the list! Still, 2008 is going to see the most expensive movie ever, as James Cameron is planning on spending $ 275 million on his new flick Avatar. But for now, here is the list for 2007 (in millions of dollars)!
1. Spider-Man 3 250
2. Beowulf 150
3. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 150
4. Transformers 150
5. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End 150
6. The Golden Compass 150
7. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer 130
8. Rush Hour 3 120
9. Evan Almighty 120
10. American Gangster 100
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