From 'Tangled' to 'Titanic,' These are the Most Expensive Movies Ever Made

Avatar ($237 million)

If you or anyone you know is able to remember a single character’s name from James Cameron’s 2009 movie Avatar, you might be eligible for financial compensation. Despite its beautiful cinematics, cutting edge CGI, and revolutionary environmental storytelling through visual effects, this movie was a contextual flop that baffled critics as to why it was so successful. Avatar ushered in a new era of filmmaking right before the turn of the decade that has been called the “budget crutch,” where a movie is so expensive that there is absolutely no way it won’t flop just because of the sheer manpower it took to make it. In 2009, Avatar was both the most expensive movie ever made, and the highest-grossing movie ever made, however, this was overturned in later years when other filmmakers adapted the same strategies they used in Avatar in different, more marketable series.