List of most expensive films

It is not clear which film is the most expensive ever made, due to the secretive nature of Hollywood accounting. Star Wars: The Force Awakens holds the official record with a net budget of $536 million. The production of the third and fourth Avengers films—Infinity War and Endgame—stands as the most expensive back-to-back film production, with a cost of over $1 billion.

Inflation, filming techniques, and external market forces affect the cost of film production. Costs rose steadily during the silent era; 1925's Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ set a record that lasted well into the sound era. Television had an impact on rising costs in the 1950s and early 1960s as cinema competed with it for audiences; 1963's highest-earning film, Cleopatra, did not recoup its costs on its original release. The 1990s saw two thresholds crossed: 1994's True Lies cost $100 million and 1997's Titanic cost $200 million, both directed by James Cameron. The 21st century has so far seen the $300 million and $400 million thresholds crossed and it has become normal for a tent-pole feature from a major film studio to cost over $200 million, and an increasing number of films now cost more than $300 million.

This list contains only films already released to the general public and not films that are still in production or post-production, as costs can change during the production process. Listed below is the net negative cost: the costs of the actual filming, not including promotional costs (i.e. advertisements, commercials, posters, etc.) and after accounting for tax subsidies. The charts are ordered by budgets that have been independently audited or officially acknowledged by the production companies where they are known; most companies will not give a statement on the actual production costs, so often only estimates by professional researchers and movie industry writers are available. Where budget estimates conflict, the productions are charted by lower-bound estimates.