Cinema's Most Expensive Movies

FemaleFirst looked back at some of cinema's biggest and most successful, or not, blockbusters to uncover which has the biggest budget.

Pirates of the Caribbean

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End currently tops the chart as the most expensive movie ever made with an eye watering $300 million budget.

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But this budget was easily made back at the global box office when, despite the mixed reviews, it became the biggest film of 2007 grossing $960 million.

However at World's End was not the only big spending Pirates movie as Dead Man's Chest spent $225 million.Most Expensive Movies

But the second movie in this most unexpected franchise was the most successful and on a kitty of £225 million the film went on to gross over $1 billion at the global box office.

Spiderman

Similarly to Pirates the budgets of the Spiderman movies has steadily grown as the franchise gained momentum.

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Teens Choose Pirates, High School

Los Angeles (E! Online) - Just what the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise needed: more booty.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, the third and ostensibly final installment of the swashbuckling event flicks, took home a leading four nods at the 2007 Teen Choice Awards Sunday, including honorary surfboards for three of its stars.

The action-adventure film, rather unsurprisingly, trounced its competition in the Choice Movie, Action-Adventure category, nabbing the top popcorn prize. Meanwhile, swoon-worthy stars Johnny Depp and Keira Knightley repeated wins from years past, with the effete eyeliner-friendly leading man taking home the Choice Movie Actor, Action-Adventure prize and his costar nabbing the Choice Movie Actress, Action-Adventure nod.

Rounding out the movie's honored thesps was sadly not locker pinup Orlando Bloom but Davy Jones himself, Bill Nighy, who took home the coveted Choice Villain nod for his portrayal of the tentacled baddie.

In addition to the treasure trove of awards bequeathed to the Pirates, the 8.5 million teens who logged votes for the awards made repeat winners of a slew of their favorites.

Justin Timberlake, Sophia Bush, Will Smith and the High School Musical gang scored three awards apiece, while Steve Carell, Shia LaBeouf and American Idol scored two nods each.

But while High School Musical wasn't the top winner of the night, its presence was keenly felt throughout the laid-back event.

Hunky star Zac Efron, fittingly, took home the Choice Male Hottie award, while his costar and down-low girlfriend Vanessa Hudgens took home the Choice Music Breakout Artist nod for her self-titled debut album. The recent ratings juggernaut that was High School Musical 2 took home the Choice TV Movie nod, while the cast itself was credited with at least one other win.

"I couldn't have done this without you," Choice Comedian winner Dane Cook said of the HSM kids while accepting his award.

Timberlake, for his part, accepted his three nods via satellite, including his honorary Ultimate Choice Award for his barrier-breaking aura of cool in music and movies, as he is finishing up his FutureSex/LoveSounds tour.

Bush, meanwhile, was the most diverse winner, earning her three nods in different projects: Choice Movie Actress, Comedy for John Tucker Must Die, Choice Movie Actress, Horror/Thriller for The Hitcher and Choice Movie Breakout, Female.

Other big-name winners of the night were Jessica Alba, who nabbed the Choice Female Hottie board, Fergie, who scored the Choice Music Female Artist honor, The Hills' feud-embroiled Lauren Conrad, who was named Choice TV Female Reality/Variety Star, and E! News' own anchor Ryan Seacrest, whose star diva-channeling turn in Knocked Up earned him the coveted nod for Choice Movie Hissy Fit.

Nick Cannon and Hilary Duff hosted the awards, handed out in Los Angeles Sunday. Here's a complete list of the 2007 Teen Choice Award winners:

MOVIES

• Choice Movie, Action Adventure: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End • Choice Movie, Drama: The Pursuit of Happyness • Choice Movie Actor, Drama: Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness • Choice Movie Actor, Action Adventure: Johnny Depp • Choice Movie Actress, Action Adventure: Keira Knightley, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End • Choice Movie Actress, Comedy: Sophia Bush, John Tucker Must Die • Choice Movie Actor, Horror/Thriller: Shia LaBeouf, Disturbia • Choice Movie Actress, Horror/Thriller: Sophia Bush, The Hitcher • Choice Movie Actress, Drama: Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls • Choice Movie Villain: Bill Nighy, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End • Choice Movie Hissy Fit: Ryan Seacrest, Knocked Up • Choice Movie Breakout, Male: Shia LaBeouf • Choice Movie Breakout, Female: Sophia Bush • Choice Movie Dance: Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan, Step Up • Choice Movie Chemistry: Will Smith and Jayden Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness • Choice Movie Scream: Steve Carell, Evan Almighty

TELEVISION

• Choice TV Movie, High School Musical 2 • Choice TV Show, Comedy: Hannah Montana • Choice TV Show, Reality/Variety: American Idol • Choice TV Actor, Comedy: Steve Carell, The Office • Choice TV Actress, Comedy: Miley Cyrus, Hannah Montana • Choice TV Breakout: America Ferrera, Ugly Betty • Choice TV Male Reality/Variety Star: Sanjaya, American Idol • Choice TV Female Reality/Variety Star: Lauren Conrad, The Hills

MUSIC

• Choice Music Single: "Girlfriend," Avril Lavigne • Choice Music Male Artist: Justin Timberlake • Choice Music Female Artist: Fergie • Choice Music Rap Artist: Timbaland • Choice Music R&B Artist: Rihanna • Choice Music Breakout Artist, Female: Vanessa Hudgens • Choice Music Breakout Artist, Male: Akon • Choice Music Love Song: "With Love," Hilary Duff • Choice Music R&B Track: "Beautiful Girls," Sean Kingston • Choice Music Payback Track: "What Goes Around...Comes Around," Justin Timberlake

OTHER

• Choice Male Hottie: Zac Efron • Choice Female Hottie: Jessica Alba • Choice Comedian: Dane Cook • Choice Summer Movie, Comedy/Musical: Hairspray • Choice Summer Artist: Miley Cyrus • Choice V Cast Video: The Hills • Choice Song of the Summer: "Hey There Delilah," Plain White T's • Choice TV Show of the Summer: Degrassi

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Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

About seven hours into Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, someone stuffs a monkey into a cannon, lights the fuse and sends it shooting across the deck to crash into another character. That monkey is like us, the audience -- bruised, confused and unsure what it did to deserve this punishment. We have to endure a hurricane of hooey, a hydra-headed story with more subplots and pointless reversals than a Raymond Chandler tale and more doodad MacGuffins -- a compass that points to this, a key that unlocks that -- than even a parody could endure, all of which leads to a sort of white noise of confusion where a plot should be. Even if that monkey-cannon were pointed at my head, I couldn't explain to you why, for example, the key pirates from the previous two films are now introduced to us as 'pirate lords' -- leaders of some kind of pirate's union, which, judging by Captain Jack (Johnny Depp) and Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) does not offer dental. It's their lordship, and what that means for pirates everywhere, that this trilogy capper is supposedly about.

You'll remember that at the end of the last film, Dead Man's Chest, Depp's swishy swashbuckler was betrayed by Keira Knightley's colonial babe Elizabeth Swann, left manacled to the deck of his ship as it was being eaten by a steroid-squid, in the hopes that a sticky pirate curse would drown with him and his ship. The audience wasn't fooled -- even the most casual moviegoer knew Depp would be returning for part three -- but films that include an easy-breezy transition between life and afterlife often find themselves having to paddle twice as hard to get dramatic tension going, which is one of the problems that most plagues At World's End. After all, if no one can really die, what's the worst thing that can happen? (One of the reasons I've never bothered to read a comic book in my life, by the way) Somewhere around the thirty-minute mark of this one, we're re-introduced to Captain Jack, who is stuck in some kind of Looney Tunes purgatory, commanding a ship sitting in the middle of a desert, and crewed only by multiple Jack Sparrows.

Before that can happen, however, we're whisked away to the land of Singapore, where Elizabeth Swann and Barbossa are improbably on some kind of stealth mission to enlist the help of Chow Yun-Fat in the whole scheme to free Sparrow from his afterlife prison. I can't imagine who thought it was a good idea to have Yun-Fat in this film, and I'm sure he would agree with me -- his scenes accomplish absolutely nothing except to pad the running time of the film an extra twenty minutes or so, and culminate in a bizarre set-up where he thinks that Knightley's character, wearing a triangle hat, is some kind of reincarnation of a goddess and tries to rape her. Don't ask. By the time the 'let's bring back Jack from the dead' part of the film is over, you're sort of hoping that things might get on the right track and liven up, but you're only kidding yourself -- that's when the real complications begin. Maps, keys to help read maps, and maps to help find keys, and so forth.

The big Keith Richards cameo, which we heard about forever, is also a wash-out -- he has one or two lines and is seemingly reading them off cards. It's almost as if he's there under duress. A more significant waste, however, is Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) the octopus-faced underworld captain introduced in the second film, and one of the few memorable characters in the entire series. Where he was menacing and mysterious before, he's now turned into a talky supporting player who absurdly sits down at meetings with the human characters to engage in their discussions about maps and keys. If I followed things correctly, I think Tom Hollander's character, a sort of bureaucratic Little Lord Fauntleroy of the high seas, commandeers Jones' powerful ghost ship The Dutchman, which can dive like a submersible and is crewed by a walking, talking Red Lobster platter, in the hopes of using it to stop an uprising by the union of pirates. Why doesn't he (Hollander) just use his influence to call down the thunder of the British fleet? Oh, forget it.

A few good moments are sprinkled throughout -- the filmmakers were smart to bring back Naomie Harris and Nighy, even if both of them are misused, and Knightley gets a couple of good lines -- but success has spoiled Captain Jack. The first film, perhaps coasting on low expectations, was a whimsical high-seas adventure in which the supernatural elements were well-handled and executed with style. A sense of economy was evident -- every shot was made to count -- but now we've arrived at the opposite end of the spectrum, with minor scenes getting twenty-minute setups and the smallest characters being allowed their own plot resolutions. Remember the guy who was in love with Knightley's character from early in the first film? He gets a good fifteen minutes. We're left with a sea-going Matrix trilogy, utterly superfluous, doomed to be forgotten. There's a moment in this film when one bit player turns to another and says "Do you think he's just making it up as he goes along?" They should have had the decency to keep that in-joke to themselves.

::This article is officially published at www.cinematical.com

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