When I went to the movies this weekend to see Transformers: Dark of the Moon, I was wondering how much they must have spent to make the movie. Between paying the actors and all the special effects, it is amazing how much money must be spent. I thought I might look at some of the successful movies made over the years: (numbers are based on box office sales only)
THE MOST EXPENSIVE MOVIES EVER MADE

05-25-2007 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End Budget with a budget of $300,000,000 this movie grossed $960,996,492
11-24-2010 Tangled Budget with a budget of $260,000,000 it grossed $586,581,936
05-04-2007 Spiderman 3 with a budget of $258,000,000 it grossed $890,875,303
07-15-2009 Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince with a budget of $250,000,000 it grossed $933,959,197
12-18-2009 Avatar with a budget of $237,000,000 it grossed $2,783,918,982
06-28-2006 Superman Returns with a budget of $232,000,000 it grossed $390,874,000
TOP BOX OFFICE HITS

12-18-2009 Avatar Budget $237,000,000 – Gross $2,783,918,982 – Profit $1,154,959,491
12-19-1997 Titanic Budget $200,000,000 – Gross $1,842,879,955 – Profit $721,439,978
12-17-2003 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Budget $94,000,000 – Gross $1,119,027,325 – Profit $465,523,663
06-11-1993 Jurassic Park Budget $63,000,000 – Gross $923,067,947 – Profit $398,533,974
05-19-2004 Shrek 2 Budget $70,000,000 – Gross $919,838,758 – Profit $389,919,379
SMALLER BIG PROFIT MOVIES
Movies that didn’t see huge gross sales, but the return on investment was huge.

09-25-2009 Paranormal Activity Budget $15,000 Gross $196,681,656
03-21-1980 Mad Max Budget $200,000 Gross $99,750,000
05-07-2004 Super Size Me $65,000 $29,529,368
07-14-1999 The Blair Witch Project $600,000 Gross $248,300,000
10-01-1968 Night of the Living Dead Budget $114,000 Gross $30,000,000
WHAT ABOUT THE LOOSERS…..

03-11-2011 Mars Needs Moms Budget $150,000,000 Gross $39,549,758 Loss -$130,225,121
06-17-2011 Green Lantern Budget $200,000,000 Gross $139,883,956 Loss -$130,058,022
04-27-2001 Town & Country Budget $105,000,000 Gross $10,364,769 Loss -$99,817,616
12-17-2010 How Do you Know? Budget $120,000,000 Gross $48,668,307 Loss -$95,665,847
06-24-2011 Cars 2 Budget $200,000,000 Gross $215,829,515 Loss -$92,090,243
06-22-2007 Evan Almighty Budget $175,000,000 Gross $173,219,280 Loss -$88,390,360
As you can see….making movies is very big business, when the movie is a hit there is a lot of money to be made. It is amazing that Paranormal Activity was filmed with a $15,000 budget after seeing the budget of the rest of the movies. Next time you go to a movie, I wonder what the movies budget will be and what kind of profit it will make????