10 Terrible Movies That Cost Way More Than They Needed To

A Hollywood by-word for when budgets spiral out of control, 1987's Ishtar is still regarded as one of the biggest box office busts in history, with the $51m budget the equivalent to well over $110m when adjusted for inflation.

Stars Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman signed on having had positive experiences working with writer/director Elaine May previously, and obviously it helped that all three were paid $12.5m before a single frame had even been shot. However, as soon as cameras started rolling, a chain reaction of events saw the production costs skyrocket.

While some of these incidents have been disputed in the years since, the tales from the set of Ishtar (true or not) are just insane.

The movie's animal trainer returned to a local market to purchase a rare blue-eyed camel, only to find out that the trader in question had eaten it since his first visit. The production spent ten days leveling a square mile of desert to create a flat landscape, May was shooting dozens of takes for even the most trivial scenes, an entire standby crew were paid in full despite not having to do any work, and arguments between pretty much everyone involved dominated post-production.

When all was said and done, Ishtar landed with a thud at the box office and couldn't even crack $15m globally. It may have undergone something of a reappraisal in recent years, but there is no denying that the infamous bomb cost at least twice as much as it should have.