What Is Most Expensive Film Since 2015? Not Tom Cruise’s ‘Mission’

The reported $400 million production budget of Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is spendy, but surprisingly it’s not the most expense film to be produced over the past 10 years.

The Final Reckoning, which opened in theaters on May 23, saw its production budget balloon to $400 million over a variety of factors, including the COVID-19 pandemic, reshoots and the SAG-AFRTA and WGA strikes against the studios, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

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Amazingly, the film could have cost more if not for the “tens of millions of dollars in tax incentives and rebates from the various countries” that was subtracted from production’s cost, THR added.

As massive as The Final Reckoning’s production budget is, THR cited a pair of other films in the past 10 years that cost more to produce than Cruise’s latest — and possibly last — film as Ethan Hunt.

Two Other Major Film Franchises Had Sequels That Cost More Than ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’

While Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning saw its costs skyrocket because of COVID-19 and the shutdowns caused by the industry strikes, THR noted that there are two other installments from major film franchises had even bigger production budgets. Interestingly, both of the films were released before the first nightmare throttled the entertainment industry in 2020.

Among the most expensive films since 2015 was 2018’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, which THR said had a $432 million production budget before marketing costs.

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Lucky for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, while the film cost a lot of money to make, it also made a lot of money at the box office. According to box office tracker The Numbers, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom earned nearly $418 million in North American theaters and $890 million internationally for a worldwide gross of $1.3 billion.

While Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom had a massive production cost, THR reported that 2015’s Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens had an even bigger production budget of $447 million.

Once again, though, the film earned enough at the box office to justify its cost. Per The Numbers, The Force Awakens earned $936.66 million domestically (making it the highest-grossing film domestically of all time, before inflation) and $1.119 billon for a worldwide box office gross of $2.056 billion.

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It’s worthy to note that The Numbers reported that the production budget for The Force Awakens was $533.2 million, a number considerably higher than THR’s report on the Star Wars sequel’s budget. The Numbers isn’t the only outlet to report the $533.2 million figure — Forbes senior contributor Caroline Reid also cited the number in her detailed breakdown of the The Force Awakens production budget in February of 2023.

While the final domestic, international and ultimately worldwide gross of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is yet to be determined, at least the film is off to a good start at the box office with $363 million in worldwide ticket sales since its opening on May 23 — an amount, of course, that will be split with theater owners. On top of that, there’s one other budget The Final Reckoning needs to recoup — the film’s marketing costs. THR, however, did not disclose what that number could be.

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