10 Movies You Won't Believe Cost So Much Money
3. Tangled - $260 Million
Tangled is a great looking Disney film, but it doesn't look that much more expensive than your typical animated movie. But actually, it's by far the most expensive animated film ever made, and the fifth most expensive film of all time.
Why? For one the movie took a long time to make, and Disney had it in development in some form for about 10 years. It was initially announced as Rapunzel Unbraided and scheduled for a 2007 release, but in 2006, a lot of the production was completely restarted. It also changed directors, from Glen Keane and Dean Wellins to Byron Howard and Nathan Greno.
Another reason: they spent a boat load of money on Rapunzel's hair. Animating hair was difficult, so to get it just right for such a hair-driven film, Disney developed an entirely new system that took six years to complete. The result is a fun Disney princess movie that's somehow more expensive than James Cameron's Avatar.
The film made $600 million, but when factoring in the $260 million budget and about double that for the marketing spend, that isn't actually that successful. Luckily, the amount of money Disney took in from merchandising sales more than made up for that.