10 INSANE Reasons Movies Were So Expensive

One of the most infamous productions in Hollywood history, Heaven's Gate was a 1980 epic Western written and directed by Michael Cimino, who fresh off the Oscar-winning success of The Deer Hunter, was effectively given carte blanche by United Artists to realise his cinematic vision.

All the same, Heaven's Gate started out with a $11.6 million budget, which bloated to a scorching $44 million by the end of production. 

This was largely attributed to Cimino's exacting, even dictatorial filmmaking style, causing the shoot to fall behind schedule almost immediately. 

Cimino had actors perform up to 50 takes, held off shooting while waiting for appealing clouds to enter the frame, ordered sets to be torn down and rebuilt for petty reasons, and even had an irrigation system built under land where a battle scene was to be filmed, to ensure the grass looked a vibrant green.

By the end of the 11-month shoot, Cimino had shot over 1.3 million feet of film, resulting in a five-hour first cut which Cimino spent most of 1980 whittling down to a just-releasable 219 minutes.

But this sadly wasn't a case of a genius auteur being vindicated by his contemporaries in the end, as while Heaven's Gate has been largely reappraised today, it was excoriated by critics upon release and grossed a disastrous $3.5 million, effectively killing United Artists in the process.