4. THE MOST EXPENSIVE MUSIC VIDEO
1. "Scream"
Cost: $7,000,000+
Artist: Michael Jackson (featuring Janet Jackson)
Michael Jackson's videos have always been ridiculously expensive. In 1983, he spent $800,000 on "Thriller," which would be about $1.4 million today. But remember that before "Thriller," no one even came close to spending that kind of money, and he had to do it with limited technological capabilities. As technology improved, Jacko's videos became more expensive, spending over $1.2 million on "Black or White" in 1992, and even more on "Remember The Time." But if he can keep an oxygen chamber, a petting zoo, the Elephant Man's bones, and an entire plastic surgery team in his mansion, it's certainly no biggie to drop another $7 mil on a video with his sister.
"Scream's" $7,000,000 price tag is more than twice as much as the next most expensive music video (Puff Daddy's "Victory" at $2.7 million), and it's easy to see why: he spent $5 million alone on 11 sets. Yet while watching the video, it all seems incredibly wasteful, not coming close to the film quality of "Thriller", "November Rain," or "Victory."
- Computer-generated spaceship: $65,000
- Breaking guitars: $53,000
- Morphing artworks: $50,000
- Michael's makeup: $3,000
- Janet's makeup: $8,000 a day
- Choreography: $40,000
- Giant video screen: $80,000
- Lighting: $175,000
- Cost per day: $636,000 (about 11 days)
- Total cost of 11 sets: $5,000,000
