Top 10 Grand and Costliest Film Settings in Cinema History

The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, directed by Peter Jackson and released in 2001, is based on the three-part novel 'The Lord of the Rings' by British author J.R.R. Tolkien.

Set in the world of Middle-earth, the film follows the journey to destroy the One Ring of power by a Hobbit named Frodo Baggins. The fate of Middle-earth rests in Frodo's hands and those of his eight companions in the Fellowship tasked with protecting the ring on a journey to Mount Doom in Mordor, the only place where the One Ring of the Dark Lord Sauron can be destroyed. To achieve cinematic success, the director utilized the 'Hobbiton Village' setting for his scenes. The film's setting depicts a village representing the living space of Hobbits. The Hobbiton Village was constructed on an area of nearly 50,000 square meters with 37 hobbit holes, apple orchards, a mill, and an arched bridge spanning a lake. Today, the Hobbiton Village has become a popular tourist destination due to the success of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.

Gangs of New York marks the first collaboration between director Martin Scorsese and actor Leonardo DiCaprio. This was also a period when the actor was yet to define his post-Titanic career path. Therefore, Gangs of New York served as the next step for him to move away from the 'heartthrob' image and become one of the most respected actors in Hollywood.

The film is set in 1860 in Manhattan, revolving around the character Amsterdam Vallon (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) – the son of the leader of the Dead Rabbits gang. Sixteen years after his father was murdered by Bill the Butcher, Amsterdam plans to avenge his father and dreams of restoring the gang to its former glory.

Prior to filming 'Gangs of New York,' the entire film crew reconstructed all five districts of 19th-century Manhattan to create the perfect setting for their film. The Paradise Square complex includes a portion of the East River shoreline along with two large ships. Over 30 buildings, including a casino, Lower Avenue, a Chinese theater, a church, the governor's mansion, were constructed. The film's budget soared to 100 million USD.

The Matrix Reloaded is a 2003 American science fiction action film written and produced by the Wachowskis and produced by Joel Silver. It is the sequel to The Matrix and the second installment in The Matrix film series. The film premiered on May 7, 2003, in Westwood, Los Angeles, California, and was released worldwide by Warner Bros. on May 15, 2003. The film was also shown out of competition at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. The video games Enter the Matrix and The Animatrix, supported and expanded the film's storyline.

The film received positive reviews from critics and grossed $741.8 million worldwide, breaking the previous record of Terminator 2: Judgment Day and becoming the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time until surpassed by Deadpool in 2016. The next installment in the series, The Matrix Revolutions, was released six months later, in November 2003.

To capture the most realistic racing scenes, the director spent nearly 2 months on the highway to shoot and select the best camera angles. The Wachowski siblings continuously switched vehicles in the film while the cars were speeding at high speed amidst heavy gunfire. It's not an exaggeration to consider The Matrix Reloaded as the film with the most iconic high-speed chase scene in cinema history.

The Matrix Reloaded had to allocate a significant budget for its scenes. To create the most captivating scenes, the film's director used $2.5 million to build a stretch of highway to create the most thrilling chase scene for viewers. The racing track in the film was built with a length of 2.5km, 3 lanes wide, and located within the premises of a decommissioned Navy base. The budget for The Matrix Reloaded soared to $150 million USD.

Titanic is a disaster-romance epic film released in 1997, directed, written, produced, and financially supported by James Cameron. Combining historical and fictional aspects, the film is based on the famous sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet as two individuals from different social classes who fall in love aboard the ill-fated ship's maiden voyage. The film also features a cast including Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Frances Fisher, Gloria Stuart, Bernard Hill, Bernard Fox, Jonathan Hyde, Victor Garber, David Warner, Danny Nucci, Suzy Amis, Bernard Fox, and Bill Paxton.

The film 'Titanic' achieved tremendous success due to the backdrop of the Titanic ship. The Titanic ship scene had the highest budget in the history of cinema, featuring an actual Titanic replica. The 20th Century studio also purchased 162,000 square meters of Bahamian coastline to construct a massive water tank with 17 million gallons of water. When the ship sank, the large tank was used to simulate the sinking scene. Additionally, interior shots of the ship were filmed in a smaller tank with 5 million gallons of water to create the scenes. The construction budget amounted to $40 million USD.

Cleopatra is a film directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz starring the silver screen icon Elizabeth Taylor, adapted from the book 'The Life and Times of Cleopatra' by Italian writer and journalist Carlo Maria Franzero published in 1957. Both the novel and the film are fictionalized accounts of the ancient Egyptian queen Cleopatra VII (69 BC-30 BC), who famously had a penchant for eliminating suitors who failed to win her heart.

What few people know is that the Rome Arena was constructed for the film on a scale three times larger than the actual historical counterpart. The construction of the Rome Arena was so massive that it caused a shortage of building materials in the Italian construction market at the time of filming. The construction budget amounted to 1 million USD.

Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi is a 1983 American epic space opera film directed by Richard Marquand. The screenplay is by Lawrence Kasdan and George Lucas from a story by Lucas, who is also the executive producer. It is the sequel to Star Wars (1977) and The Empire Strikes Back (1980), the third film in the original Star Wars trilogy, and the sixth in terms of the chronology of the 'Skywalker Saga'. The film stars Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, Anthony Daniels, David Prowse, Kenny Baker, Peter Mayhew, and Frank Oz.

In the film, Jabba's Spaceship required 110 laborers and took 4 months to construct. The design inspiration for the scene was drawn from 18th-century Navy ships. The spaceship's construction measures 65 meters in length, 24 meters in height, and 20 meters in width. The construction budget amounted to 4 million USD.

WarGames is a 1983 American science fiction thriller film written by Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes and directed by John Badham. The film stars Matthew Broderick, Dabney Coleman, John Wood, and Ally Sheedy, following David Lightman (Broderick), a young hacker who unwittingly accesses a United States military supercomputer programmed to simulate and enact nuclear war against the Soviet Union.

WarGames was a box office and critical success, with a budget of $12 million and grossing $125 million worldwide. The influential film was nominated for three Oscars.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command Headquarters was constructed on a 9,000 square meter area. Every detail in the command center was meticulously crafted to provide the most realistic imagery for viewers. The control room in the North American Aerospace Defense Command Headquarters is covered in large crystal display screens. The construction budget amounted to 1 million USD.

Batman is a fictional character, a comic book superhero created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 (May 1939) and has since appeared in numerous publications by DC Comics. Originally named 'The Bat-Man,' he is also known by aliases such as 'The Caped Crusader,' 'The Dark Knight,' and 'The World's Greatest Detective.'

Batman operates in Gotham City (a fictional city based on New York City, USA), aided by various characters including his sidekick Robin, butler Alfred Pennyworth, Police Commissioner James Gordon, and sometimes the heroine Batgirl. Batman's traditional enemies include the Joker, as well as a rogue's gallery of other villains such as Harley Quinn, Penguin, Two-Face, Poison Ivy, and Deathstroke.

Gotham City in the movie 'Batman' directed by Tim Burton was entirely modeled using miniatures. The miniature Gotham City was meticulously detailed, spanning across a vast plane of 402 square meters, all the way from the window frames. Gotham City utilized 18 sound stages.

The Spy Who Loved Me is a British spy film released in 1977, the tenth installment in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions. It features Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond for the third time. The film also stars Barbara Bach and Curt Jürgens, directed by Lewis Gilbert. The screenplay is by Christopher Wood and Richard Maibaum, with Tom Mankiewicz uncredited for his rewrites.

The film's title is derived from Ian Fleming's 1962 novel The Spy Who Loved Me, the tenth book in the James Bond series, although it contains none of the plot elements from the novel. The story revolves around a reclusive superman named Karl Stromberg, who plans to destroy the world and create a new civilization under the sea. Bond teams up with a Soviet agent, Anya Amasova, to thwart the plan, all while being pursued by Stromberg's henchman, Jaws.

It was filmed on location in Egypt (Cairo and Luxor) and Italy (Costa Smeralda, Sardinia), with underwater scenes shot in the Bahamas (Nassau), and a new sound stage built at Pinewood Studios for a grandiose depiction of the interior of a supertanker. The Liparus submarine in the film is dubbed the 'real deal' submarine. Not only that, the Liparus submarine is also a modern and super-sized submarine. The complex of the Liparus submarine includes 3 separate submarines filmed in a 1.2 million gallon water tank with the largest stage in the world. The budget for the project is 1 million USD.

The Goonies is a 1985 American adventure comedy film produced and directed by Richard Donner from a screenplay by Chris Columbus, based on a story by Steven Spielberg. In the film, a group of kids living in the 'Goon Docks' neighborhood of Astoria, Oregon, attempt to save their homes from foreclosure and, in doing so, they discover an old treasure map that leads them on an adventure to unearth long-lost riches. The treasure of One-Eyed Willy, a legendary 17th-century pirate. During their adventure, they are pursued by a family of criminals who want the treasure for themselves.

The Inferno pirate ship in the film was built with an impressive giant sail that wowed movie audiences. The Inferno pirate ship has a length of 32m. The filmmakers used 650m2 of fabric to make the sail. It took the film crew 2 and a half months to complete this ship. However, The Inferno ship has now been destroyed.