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Budget of $64 million? Where did all that money go?

posted 12 years ago by deltonacity
16 replies | jump to latest

Okay, I know that Stallone was paid around $16 million, but that still leaves $48 million, so where did the rest go?

It's mostly shot in wide open, empty desert landscapes which are some of the cheapest areas to shoot a movie in. Sure, there's lots of explosions but it's not expensive to blow some old military vehicles up. There are no elaborate set pieces and most of the action scenes just consist or Stallone mowing down hundreds of generic bad guys, again not expensive to shoot.

Putting Stallone's salary aside, if I was told that this was shot on a $2 million budget then I'd have no trouble believing it. The only difference between this and a $1 million B-movie shot in Namibia is better cinematography.

Furthermore, there are no "name" actors in supporting roles, unless you count Richard Crenna but I highly doubt he was high rent at the time.

So where did all that money go? Were there major production difficulties? $64 million is still a lot of money for a movie even today, and in 2012 I'd still expect an action movie with that kind of budget to look a LOT better than this.

[–] A-zone 11 years ago

Well I can't say with a factual certainty but if I were to make an educated guess, here's what I think:

Definitely, a large part of the budget will go to Stallone. As for the rest, well firstly, this film was shot in 4 different countries, US, Pakistan, Israel and Thailand. That requires payments to be made for the tickets, visas for the entire cast and crew as well as all the equipment. Then there's the cost of accommodation, food and boarding for all the cast and crew. Don't forget there were at least 30 bodyguards for Stallone included in the crew!

Now coming to the actual shooting, there's a lot of military vehicles, jeeps, tanks, helicopters to be paid for and since many of them were blown to bits, that meant that the producers did not just lease them but ought them outright.

While there are no elaborate set pieces, sets were still required to be constructed and that costs money. The Afghan village and the Russian fort were most likely built by the production team.

Then there are extras to be paid. A LOT of extras! All those Russians and the rebels. Agreed that each of them did not get a salary equal to Stallone's but still there were a lot of extras.

Then there were a lot of horses. Hiring those many horses certainly would cost quite a bit.

So if I look at all these aspects, the $64 million budget seems about right.

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