8. Waterworld
Waterworld is another film with an expensive set. It is without a doubt one of the most famous movies ever made.
Kevin Costner’s 1995 “Waterworld” was the most expensive movie ever produced, that is before James Cameron’s Titanic (1997) came out.
Costner personally invested over $22 million of his own money into the film and the movie set. Since Waterworld, as the story suggests, is based mostly on the sea, most of the shooting took place on a gigantic 365-foot-diameter atoll specifically built for the production off the coast of Hawaii.
For the panoramic shots, to create the illusion of no land, the atoll had to be moved out farther into the ocean and rotated for different angles.
Aerial filming was also provided from seaplanes and helicopters. Widely considered to be a huge financial disaster, the production budget skyrocketed when the set was destroyed by weather, and more than once!
Since no research was done on the local climate or weather conditions, the production got hit hard by 3 major hurricanes that caused damage to the set. Eventually, the artificial island sank.
