10 Expensive Movies With Budgets That Spiralled Out Of Control

9. Sahara (2005)

Based on the series of novels by Clive Cussler, Sahara was intended to launch a new action-adventure franchise in the mold of a 21st Century Indiana Jones. Instead, the movie suffered from a troubled production that saw it quickly burn through a pile of cash, with disappointing box office returns not even coming close to recouping the mammoth $160m budget. Sahara bears the names of four screenwriters in the credits, but no less than ten writers took a stab at adapting the adventures of Dirk Pitt for the big screen. To put this into perspective, almost $4m was spent on fees for writers, many of whom didn't even receive a credit for their work. If that wasn't bad enough, director Breck Eisner spent $2m of the budget filming a 45-second plane crash sequence that didn't even make it into the final cut of the movie! The movie would go on to earn less than $120m at the box office, but Sahara's financial woes hardly stopped there. Expensive distribution costs and poor box office saw the movie post a loss of over $100m, while author Cussler sued the production and was then himself counter-sued, which led to a protracted legal process that dragged on until 2010. One of the most damning examples of a Hollywood production spiraling out of control in recent memory, the legal actions made the budgetary documents available to the public and they provide some jaw-dropping information, not least the inclusion of local bribes.