Budget and financing
The movie's final production budget was $187.3 Million, making it the most expensive independently produced movie in history. Arnold Schwarzenegger had to dip into his own pocket ($6 million) to help fund the production of the movie - in particular the car chase scene that included a crane crashing through an entire building. It was a scene that he himself wanted to put in the movie (as he explains in the audio commentary and on The Tonight Show). Schwarzenegger agreed to defer part of his salary in order to move the set to Los Angeles from Vancouver. Many pundits saw this as preparation to his campaign for California governor, where he emphasized giving incentives to have movie productions stay inside California rather than move to cheaper places elsewhere.
Even though Terminator 3 eventually had a world box-office gross of $427 million (at least half of which is kept by movie theaters), it barely broke even.
Story rights (Carolco and Gale Anne Hurd): $14.5 million
Screenplay: $5.2 million
Director (Jonathan Mostow): $5 million
Producers: $10 million
Cast: $35 million
Arnold Schwarzenegger: $29.25 million + 20% gross profits
Arnold's perks: $1.5 million
Rest of principal cast: $3.85 million
Extras: $400,000
Production costs: $58 million
Post-production costs: $4 million
Visual effects: $20 million
Music: $2 million
Other costs: $33.6 million
Total: $187.3 million
Source: [1]
[edit]
Financing
Warner Bros.: $51.6 million for North American rights.
Toho-Towa: $20 million for Japanese rights.
Sony Pictures Entertainment: $77.4 million for the rights to the rest of the world.
Internationale Medien und Film: IMF is a German tax shelter. The tax law of Germany allows investors to take an instant tax deduction even on non-German productions and even if the film has not gone into production. By selling them the copyright for $160 million and then buying it back for $149 million, producers Intermedia effectively made $11 million.
Total: $160 million
Does anyone else find it funny that if you pretty much take all the cast and crew and story, the production was only 117 million.
I found this interesting because this helps show that with financing being spread around so much and in fact they end up making money through back end deals in distribution, that most movies are bigger successes than you think.
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