10 Movies That Did Crazy Things When They Ran Out Of Money
4. Spike Lee Gave Up Most Of His Fee & Asked Black Celebrities For Donations - Malcolm X
Spike Lee's Malcolm X ended up costing $35 million, which was almost as expensive as Lee's five previous films combined.
Even with the epic biopic Lee was trying to make, some pushback from Warner Bros. wasn't entirely unreasonable, who had reservations about the $30 million Lee asked for and also demands of a three-hour runtime.
Lee was nevertheless allowed to begin filming with a $28 million budget, and convinced Warner Bros. to raise it to $33 million during shooting.
But as Lee continued to shoot and found himself unable to get any more money from the studio, he decided to surrender $2 million of his own $3 million salary to the budget.
After four months of shooting were completed, the insurance company took control of the film, and amid runtime arguments between Lee and the studio, shut down post-production with costs running dry.
Lee got desperate and made the highly unconventional decision to effectively crowdfund post-production from prominent Black celebrities, including Bill Cosby, Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Janet Jackson, and Prince.
These donations - not investments, Lee made clear - allowed Lee to get back into the editing suite and finish the 201-minute cut he envisioned from the outset.
Though Malcolm X was a modest commercial success and netted Denzel Washington a Best Actor Oscar nomination, Lee's unconventional chicanery soured his relationship with Warner Bros. for years, such that he was prevented from helping develop Space Jam.