Disney/Lucasfilm's Star Wars: The Force Awakens was widely believed to be the most expensive movie ever made, with the studios reportedly spending a whopping $638.9 million to bring the 2015 blockbuster to the screen.
This figure encompasses the production budget, along with marketing and various other P&A costs.
Now, a new report claims that Universal Pictures' Jurassic World: Dominion has topped The Force Awakens as the most expensive film of all time.
According to Fortune.com, Universal spent an astronomical $658.8 million on the 2022 dino disaster movie. It seems the budget was massively inflated due to several factors stemming from the coronavirus pandemic.
Filming commenced at the height of the outbreak in 2020, and the production was required to comply with the standard safety protocols, testing requirements and isolation rules. Significant delays followed, and the movie's release was ultimately pushed back by almost a full year. During these off months, the studio continued to fork out for soundstages, rented equipment, security and key production staff who had to stay ready to return to work at a moment's notice. The main cast members were put up in luxury hotels during extended isolation periods, in rooms said to cost more than $600 a night.
"One of the biggest single costs was paying the staff which peaked at an average of 454 monthly employees. That doesn’t include freelancers, contractors, and temporary staff—they aren’t listed on the books of British companies even though they often represent the majority of workers on a film shoot. Universal paid $36.2 million (£27.5 million) to staff working on “Dominion” in addition to spending on U.K. services such as security, equipment hire, transport and catering."
On the plus side, the studio benefited from generous tax incentives by shooting in Britain, and Dominion went on to gross over $1 billion at the global box office.
"The amount theaters pay to studios is known in the trade as a rental fee and is widely established as being a 50-50 split, which would give Universal $500 million from Dominion’s box office haul of almost precisely $1 billion. After deducting Universal’s $531 million net outlay, it yields a small loss on its theatrical run, but the share of ticket takings isn’t a studio’s only return from a movie. It also generates revenue from Blu Ray and streaming sales as well as merchandise."
At any rate, Universal clearly wasn't left too out of pocket, as a new Jurassic World movie, the similarly panned Rebirth, arrived in theaters last year, and a sequel is already in the early planning stages.
"Four years after the destruction of Isla Nublar, dinosaurs now live--and hunt--alongside humans all over the world. This fragile balance will reshape the future and determine, once and for all, whether human beings are to remain the apex predators on a planet they now share with history's most fearsome creatures."