List of most expensive music videos
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This article lists the most expensive music videos ever made, with costs of $500,000 or more, from those whose budgets have been disclosed.
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With a budget of $7 million, "Scream" by Michael Jackson (left) and Janet Jackson (right) is the most expensive music video of all time—both nominally and adjusted for inflation.
David Bowie's video for the 1980 single "Ashes to Ashes" was the first music video to exceed this sum. Janet Jackson and Britney Spears have six videos each on the list, while Michael Jackson and Ayumi Hamasaki have five each. Madonna has made three appearances in the top five, and five total, making her the artist with the most expensive videos of all time combined. TLC, Mariah Carey, Kanye West, Busta Rhymes, Guns N' Roses, Mylène Farmer and MC Hammer appear on the list twice.
Joseph Kahn has directed seven, Paul Hunter has directed four, while Hype Williams, Cha Eun Taek and Wataru Takeishi have directed three. Nigel Dick, Mark Romanek and John Landis appear twice, the latter with videos both for Michael Jackson. This list only includes music videos with an announced or reported budget.
Romanek, who made Michael and Janet Jackson's "Scream", which was claimed to be one of the most expensive music videos ever made, has since denied this claim, saying that there were two other music videos from the same era which cost "millions more" than "Scream".[1] In a 2017 interview, Mick Garris, a writer for Michael Jackson's Ghosts stated that after several years of production development for the Ghosts short film: "It became the most expensive music video ever made...it ended up coming in at about $15 million, all of it out of Michael's pocket."[2]
Most expensive music videos
Indicates the title was the most expensive of all time at the time of production
Indicates non-English-language music videos
Most expensive of all time at the time of production
| Year | Title | Artist(s) | Director | Cost (est.) | Ref | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominal | Adjusted | |||||
| 1960 | "Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya" | Naushad, Shakeel Badayuni, Lata Mangeshkar | K. Asif | $320,000 | $3,401,215 | [62][63] |
| 1980 | "Ashes to Ashes" | David Bowie | David Bowie and David Mallet | $582,000 | $2,221,049 | [50] |
| 1984 | "The Wild Boys" | Duran Duran | Russell Mulcahy | $1,000,000 | $3,026,586 | |
| 1986 | "I'm Not Perfect (But I'm Perfect for You)" | Grace Jones | Grace Jones | $1,200,000 | $3,442,259 | [28] |
| 1987 | "Bad" | Michael Jackson | Martin Scorsese | $2,200,000 | $6,088,987 | |
| 1989 | "Express Yourself" | Madonna | David Fincher | $5,000,000 | $12,683,221 | [3][4] |
| 1995 | "Bedtime Story" | Mark Romanek | $10,317,755 | |||
| "Scream" | Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson | $7,000,000 | $14,444,857 | |||
See also
Notes
- Industry insiders from Planet Hollywood reported that the music video's total production and editing costs amounted to $6.5 million, as stipulated by the contract Spears signed in her residency requirements, making it the second most expensive music video of all time. Later, the director disclaimed the costs; they were not nearly to $6.5 million at all.
References
Bibliography
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