Avatar: Most Expensive Movie Ever?
When the sci-fi film Avatar hits theaters on December 16, Fox Features will have released its most expensive movie yet – and maybe the most expensive movie of all time. The sci-fi epic is being presented in 3-D and utilizes new technology never before used in a feature film.
The studio isn’t revealing how much they spent on Avatar, but the Wall Street Journal estimates that the film could cost even more than $300 million. The astronomical cost doesn’t seem to bother Fox, however. James Gianopulos, co-chairman and CEO of Fox Filmed Entertainment said in a recent interview that the unspecified amount the studio spent on Avatar is money well spent, and that he “isn’t worried about it.”
While the numbers are only speculated, it is possible that Avatar is the most expensive film ever produced. If true, the movie would take the top spot from Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, the 2007 adventure film that cost an estimated $300 million to create.
Avatar director James Cameron is no stranger to breaking movie budget records. Cameron’s last movie, Titanic, was released in 1997 and cost more than $200 million – the most ever spent on a feature film at the time. Titanic went on to make more than $1.8 billion worldwide, a feat that Fox hopes to repeat with Avatar.
One reason the film comes with such a high price tag is due to the new technology involved in its production. Cameron has reportedly had the idea for Avatar for more than a decade, but was waiting for the technology to be developed for him to execute the project how he intended. The technology in question is a new type of camera that allows computer-generated imagery to be seamlessly connected with live action.
Cameron also worked to develop a much smaller camera that can capture images in 3-D. Before Cameron tackled this ambitious project, the camera used to do this was larger than a refrigerator, but has now been reduced to a much larger size.
There’s no word yet whether Fox plans to reduce the actual costs associated with Avatar’s production, but we can only wait until after December 16 to see how close they come to making back their projected spending.
