‘The Force Awakens’ Becomes The Most Expensive Movie Ever Made

[Hedrox]

A interesting bit of info from last month that kinda went under the radar. You can read the Forbes article here, but basically Disney spent a hell of a lot more on making it than what was officially reported: $533.2 million(!) vs the initial $200 million.

Movie budgets are usually a closely-guarded secret as studios tend to absorb the cost of individual pictures in their overall expenses. However, the costs of movies made in the UK are consolidated in single companies which file annual financial statements showing the cash reimbursement, headcount, salaries, total expenses and more.

The production companies have code names so that they don’t raise attention when filing for permits to shoot off-site. The Disney subsidiary behind The Force Awakens is named Foodles Production after the cafe next to the San Rafael California headquarters of Kerner Optical, the original practical effects division of Lucasfilm's Industrial Light & Magic VFX firm.

A condition of receiving the cash reimbursement is that the companies must be responsible for everything from pre-production to delivery of the movie and paying for services relating to the finished film. It one of the reasons why Foodles is still booking costs on its financial statements eight years after The Force Awakens was released.

Another reason is that the companies often file the financial statements around a year after the period they cover. This is why the latest results for Foodles were filed last month and cover the year to December 31, 2021. During that time the company spent $3.1 million (£2.6 million) bringing the total spent on The Force Awakens to a massive $533.2 million which is 74% more than the media had estimated.

Wikipedia also updated their list of "Most expensive productions":