Exclusive: Universal beat Disney as Hollywood’s maker of the most expensive movie of all time

NBCUniversal has taken Disney’s title of making the most expensive movie of all time, according to analysis of recently filed financial statements.The filings show that Universal Pictures spent $658.8 million making the 2022 action-adventure pic “Jurassic World: Dominion,” surpassing the previous record-holder, Disney’s 2015 “Star Wars” reboot “The Force Awakens” which cost $638.9 million. Universal and Disney have been contacted for comment.“Dominion” was the third film in Universal’s “Jurassic World” series, and it united its stars Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pratt with Lara Dern, Jeff Goldblum, and Sam Neill, who headlined the original “Jurassic Park” trilogy. Filmed at the peak of the pandemic in 2020, Universal had to adopt costly safety protocols during production. It also faced months of delays which pushed the premiere of the movie back by a year to June 2022. Maintaining productions in a state of readiness during the downtime caused studios’ costs to surge as they had to continue paying for soundstages and leased equipment, which could not be returned without risking losing the access window to it. Furthermore, some security staff had to be paid to watch over sets. And so did some high-level producers and department heads, to ensure they remained available when the pandemic receded. The A-list cast didn’t slum it during their five-month quarantine period, either. The stars were holed up in Marriott’s opulent Langley Hotel in the U.K., near where Dominion was filmed at the historic Pinewood Studios. An 18th-century manor, the Langley’s wood-panelled lounge is home to an elegant piano which featured in viral social media videos during lockdown as Goldblum played old-school jazz songs while Neill sung alongside him. Rooms at the hotel cost more than $600 a night, big enough to impact Universal’s bottom line for the film. The exact cost of making movies in the U.S. is usually a closely guarded secret. Although t