Cleopatra's budget grew 22x from pitch to premiere and nearly sank 20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox greenlit Cleopatra as a modest $2 million historical picture in 1958. Production first moved to England, where cold weather, a redesigned outdoor set and Elizabeth Taylor's near-fatal illness burned through a year and millions of dollars before a single usable scene existed.

Fox restarted the production in Rome with a new director, an entirely rebuilt cast and sets so large they caused a real building-material shortage in Italy. Costume and set costs kept climbing while the studio kept approving overruns rather than shutting the project down, betting that a finished film would recoup them.

The film finally premiered in June 1963 at a reported $44 million, the most expensive film made up to that point. It grossed about $57.8 million in theatrical rentals and box office, which counted as a hit by ticket sales but left the studio's own investment barely covered, and Fox had already sold roughly 260 acres of its studio backlot to a developer to raise cash before the film even opened.