10 Movies That Cost Twice As Much As They Needed To
3. Sahara
Sahara was originally designed to launch a blockbuster adventure franchise for Matthew McConaughey's Dirk Pitt, but after the movie bombed at the box office and failed to even cover the production costs in the process, any plans for further installments were abandoned by the end of its opening weekend.
A largely bland and formulaic action flick that doesn't have a shred of originality or inventiveness about it, at no point during Sahara's 124 minute running time does it ever feel like you're watching something that cost $160m to put together. The action is all so run-of-the-mill and relatively small in scale that it seems hard to believe that it required such a huge budget, at least until the real dirt was eventually revealed.
Director Breck Eisner reportedly shot a lavish action sequence at a cost of $2m that didn't even make it into the final cut, and some remarkable behind-the-scenes details ended up revealing just where all that money ended up going, including $250,000 for Penelope Cruz's hairstylist, half a million dollars to pay a writer that didn't even end up getting credited, and accusations of bribes being paid to the Moroccan government.