For years Star Wars led, but the most expensive film in history is now Jurassic World: Dominion, with a budget of $658.8 million and a box office that exceeded $1 billion.

Written by Bruno Teles

Published on 21/06/2026 at 15:17

Updated on 21/06/2026 at 15:18

Be the first to react!

A fiscal document revealed in 2026 showed that the most expensive movie in history is no longer Star Wars. The title now belongs to Jurassic World: Dominion, with a budget that reached US$ 658.8 million. And the detail that no one expected: even with a box office over US$ 1 billion, the film may have incurred a loss.

For years, the film industry had a well-known spending champion. But a recent revelation shuffled the ranking and crowned a new record holder. The most expensive movie ever made is not a space opera or a superhero epic, but a film full of dinosaurs: Jurassic World: Dominion, by Universal, released in June 2022, concludes the latest trilogy of the franchise that began with Jurassic Park.

The information came to light in 2026, from a fiscal statement presented in the United Kingdom and analyzed by the magazine Fortune. The papers showed a production budget of US$ 658.8 million, a figure that dethroned the former leader and shed light on how Hollywood costs have exploded in recent years. Behind the figure, there is a story of pandemic, creative accounting, and a box office that, incredibly, may not have been enough.

The number that took Star Wars off the top

The most expensive movie in history is no longer Star Wars: it is Jurassic World, with a budget of US$ 658.8 million and a box office over US$ 1 billion. — Jurassic World: Dominion

Until this revelation, the title of the most expensive movie in history belonged to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, from 2015, by Disney. That film reactivated the Star Wars franchise with an estimated cost of several hundred million dollars and reigned at the top of the list for almost a decade. It was the symbol of how much a modern blockbuster could consume.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

Why it cost so much: the pandemic bill

The main villain of the budget goes by a well-known name: COVID-19. The filming of Jurassic World: Dominion took place in 2020, at the height of the pandemic, when the world was at a standstill and studios needed to maintain strict safety protocols to shoot any scene. Universal set up an extremely expensive scheme to protect cast and crew, with constant testing, isolation, and reinforced structure, which inflated the bill dramatically.

Besides the sanitary cost, there was the cost of time. The delays caused by the pandemic pushed the premiere by about a year, and keeping sets, equipment, technical teams, and stars idle or at a reduced pace for months costs a fortune. Add to that an expensive cast, which brought together names from the new trilogy with the classic stars of Jurassic Park, and the result was the budget that turned the feature into the most expensive film in history. The box office, as we will see, would have to be gigantic just to break even.

The budget trick: gross versus net

Here comes a detail that almost no one notices when reading headlines about cinema. The figure of $658.8 million is the gross cost, but that wasn’t exactly what came out of the studio’s pocket. As explained by outlets like Collider, the film received a tax rebate of about $128 million from the UK government, within a program that refunds up to 25.5% of what is spent on productions in the country.

With this discount, the net cost of Jurassic World: Dominion dropped to around $531 million. Even so, it’s a colossal amount, enough to maintain the position of the most expensive film in history even in the lean account. This game between gross and net also explains why budget rankings vary so much from one report to another: it depends on whether you count the value before or after tax incentives. The important thing is that, in any case, the film stayed ahead of Star Wars.

More than $1 billion and still in the red?

And now comes the most surprising part. Jurassic World: Dominion grossed over $1 billion at the box office worldwide, a number that would normally be synonymous with tremendous success. The problem is that, with a budget that high, even a billion-dollar box office doesn’t guarantee profit. This is because studios split the revenue from theaters with cinemas and still need to cover marketing, distribution, and interest, expenses that add up to hundreds of millions more.

Initial estimates, like those from the site Deadline, suggested a profit of a few hundred million, but these calculations were made before the real cost came to light. With the true budget revealed, some suspect that the most expensive movie in history might have, in practice, resulted in a loss in cinema accounts, relying solely on other revenue sources to break even. Digital sales, streaming, licensed products, and even theme park areas are part of this equation to try to save the investment.

What this says about today’s cinema

The case of Jurassic World: Dominion is a snapshot of Hollywood’s current moment. Major studios are betting increasingly high on established franchises, hoping that the well-known name will guarantee an audience. However, the bigger the bet, the greater the risk, and productions like this show that even a billion dollars at the box office may not suffice when the budget gets out of control.

This scenario helps explain why so many studios have started investing heavily in streaming and rethinking the size of their blockbusters. When the most expensive movie in history needs theme parks and digital platforms to possibly avoid a loss, it’s clear that the mega-budget model has its limits. The dinosaur franchise, which once revolutionized special effects, has also become a symbol of the financial dangers of the super-blockbuster era, far beyond the old duel with Star Wars.

The story of Jurassic World: Dominion is full of twists, like a good action movie. For years, Star Wars held the title of the most expensive production, until a simple tax declaration revealed that the dinosaurs had consumed an even larger budget of $658.8 million, and that not even the billion-dollar box office would have guaranteed easy profit. It’s more than enough money to make one think.

And you, did you imagine that the most expensive movie in history would be this one, or would you have bet on another title? Tell us in the comments which film you thought led this list.

0 Comments

most recent

older Most voted

For years Star Wars led, but the most expensive film in history is now Jurassic World: Dominion, with a budget of $658.8 million and a box office that exceeded $1 billion.

The number that took Star Wars off the top

Why it cost so much: the pandemic bill

The budget trick: gross versus net

More than $1 billion and still in the red?

What this says about today’s cinema

In the cold desert of Ladakh, where it hardly rains, engineer Sonam Wangchuk created the ice stupa, a tower that freezes winter water and stores it for irrigating crops in the spring, a simple engineering feat that mimics nature.

Libya built over 4,000 kilometers of underground pipelines to bring water from the Sahara to coastal cities in a project that the government itself called the Eighth Wonder of the World.

Chinese woman planted trees for decades while sand buried part of her house, received $5,000 from an American in 1999, and helped transform the desert into a forest of 8 million trees in China.

Desert sand, previously discarded for being too smooth for concrete, becomes an ecological brick in the United Arab Emirates, dispensing with Portland cement, curing at room temperature, and attempting to transform dunes useless for construction into raw material for a new arid engineering.

Almost 6,000 residents live concentrated along a single street nearly 9 km long in the interior of Poland. Houses form a continuous row, and behind them, narrow agricultural strips emerge, creating one of the most unusual rural patterns in Europe.

Described by astronauts as one of the most unlikely natural phenomena on Earth, the Okavango Delta spreads over up to 15,000 square kilometers in the middle of the desert and transforms Botswana into a living labyrinth of channels, islands, and flooded areas.

Two helicopters, 41 people, and over 38 tons of bait were mobilized on a remote Pacific atoll to eliminate rats; five years later, native trees grew by 5,000%, seabirds gained habitat, and the rainforest began to regenerate.

The largest Gothic church in Northern Europe began in 1248 to house the relics of the Three Wise Men, remained unfinished for centuries, and was only completed 632 years later, with steel, steam, and a German national campaign that turned the delay into a historical symbol.

10-year-old boy from Bahia finds a different way to multiply, reorganizes partial sums in base 10, and transforms a common school calculation into an example of mathematical creativity that went beyond the test, was reviewed by teachers, and turned into a technical article.

Pressure from residents forces a U.S. energy utility to suspend negotiations with a data center that could require 500 megawatts by 2032 and demand new lines, reinforcements in the power grid, and large infrastructure investments.

A city in India was inaugurated in 1968 in front of 5,000 people, welcomed young people from 124 nations, and today gathers more than 3,300 residents from 60 nationalities trying to prove that humanity can live without divisions of country, religion, and politics.

Florida begins sending robotic rabbits to the Everglades swamps, where they mimic prey, use cameras, AI, and sensors to attract and locate invasive pythons hidden in the mud and vegetation.

For years Star Wars led, but the most expensive film in history is now Jurassic World: Dominion, with a budget of $658.8 million and a box office that exceeded $1 billion.

The number that took Star Wars off the top

Why it cost so much: the pandemic bill

The budget trick: gross versus net

More than $1 billion and still in the red?

What this says about today’s cinema

In the cold desert of Ladakh, where it hardly rains, engineer Sonam Wangchuk created the ice stupa, a tower that freezes winter water and stores it for irrigating crops in the spring, a simple engineering feat that mimics nature.

Libya built over 4,000 kilometers of underground pipelines to bring water from the Sahara to coastal cities in a project that the government itself called the Eighth Wonder of the World.

Chinese woman planted trees for decades while sand buried part of her house, received $5,000 from an American in 1999, and helped transform the desert into a forest of 8 million trees in China.

Desert sand, previously discarded for being too smooth for concrete, becomes an ecological brick in the United Arab Emirates, dispensing with Portland cement, curing at room temperature, and attempting to transform dunes useless for construction into raw material for a new arid engineering.

Almost 6,000 residents live concentrated along a single street nearly 9 km long in the interior of Poland. Houses form a continuous row, and behind them, narrow agricultural strips emerge, creating one of the most unusual rural patterns in Europe.

Described by astronauts as one of the most unlikely natural phenomena on Earth, the Okavango Delta spreads over up to 15,000 square kilometers in the middle of the desert and transforms Botswana into a living labyrinth of channels, islands, and flooded areas.

Two helicopters, 41 people, and over 38 tons of bait were mobilized on a remote Pacific atoll to eliminate rats; five years later, native trees grew by 5,000%, seabirds gained habitat, and the rainforest began to regenerate.

Government wants to pay up to R$ 8,000 to more than 2,300 traditional families in over 100 communities in Acre and Amazonas for environmental services provided to the Amazon.

Coal mine purchased for $2 million in Wyoming, the Brook Mine holds rare earth elements and critical minerals estimated at up to $37 billion, in an asset that the US is competing for with China.

In the year Brazil won the World Cup, gasoline cost R$ 1.77, the cheapest car was worth R$ 13,000, there were no flex-fuel cars, SUVs were rare, and no Chinese brand sold a single vehicle in the country.

Neighboring Balneário Camboriú will receive a R$ 1 billion airport with 225 hangars, an area of 2.2 million m², a technology park, and an export zone that promises to transform the economy and generate thousands of jobs.

After investing R$ 5,000 in fried chicken in his backyard, a Brazilian transformed two fryers and a freezer into a network with 115 sales points, presence in up to 17 states, and revenue exceeding R$ 115 million per year.

The largest Gothic church in Northern Europe began in 1248 to house the relics of the Three Wise Men, remained unfinished for centuries, and was only completed 632 years later, with steel, steam, and a German national campaign that turned the delay into a historical symbol.

10-year-old boy from Bahia finds a different way to multiply, reorganizes partial sums in base 10, and transforms a common school calculation into an example of mathematical creativity that went beyond the test, was reviewed by teachers, and turned into a technical article.

Pressure from residents forces a U.S. energy utility to suspend negotiations with a data center that could require 500 megawatts by 2032 and demand new lines, reinforcements in the power grid, and large infrastructure investments.

A city in India was inaugurated in 1968 in front of 5,000 people, welcomed young people from 124 nations, and today gathers more than 3,300 residents from 60 nationalities trying to prove that humanity can live without divisions of country, religion, and politics.

Florida begins sending robotic rabbits to the Everglades swamps, where they mimic prey, use cameras, AI, and sensors to attract and locate invasive pythons hidden in the mud and vegetation.