8 Movies That Had No Regard For The Environment

At the time of its production, William Wyler's 1959 epic Ben-Hur had the biggest budget and largest sets of any film ever made. One of the most famous scenes is the climactic chariot race, set inside an enormous stadium that covered an astonishing 18 acres.

The stadium cost $1 million to build, and several other sets were used, covering almost 150 acres in total. Reports estimate that more than 40,000 cubic feet of wood was used for the set-building, along with tons of metal, plaster, and sand that was shipped in directly from the Mediterranean for realism.

When the film finished shooting, the production company, MGM, destroyed most of the sets, putting all those resources to waste instead of letting other studios use them. The film was at least a huge success, winning a record 11 Oscars and going down in history as one of the most significant motion pictures of all time, but all of that success came at a pretty high price in more ways than one.