10 Of The Most Expensive Movie Car Chases In Cinema History
New research from comparethemarket.com.au has revealed the most popular movie car chases and their costs using insight from Car and Classic’s, Chris Pollitt.
There’s nothing like the thrill of the chase – but when it comes to movies, just how much did that thrill cost to make? Working with an automotive expert, new research from Compare the Market has revealed the most popular(1) car chases in movie history and just how much each scene(2) would cost, based on the current(3) valuation of the primary vehicles involved in the scenes.
The scene from Vanishing Point (1971) was revealed as the most expensive scene based on the featured vehicles, at US$1,464,453.84, including inflation-adjusted costs. However, instant classic Baby Driver was the most popular car chase scene on the list, totaling 82,027,075 YouTube views despite its relatively recent 2017 release.
According to the findings, the most expensive car chases of the big screen are:
Taking the top spot on the list is the all-time classic film, Vanishing Point. With 103 featured cars and a car chasing scene totaling around US$1,464,454, this is undoubtedly one of the most realistic car chasing movies of all time.
You know a movie’s going to be good when the very first scene is Vin Diesel getting broken out of a prison bus, and Fast Five definitely didn’t disappoint. That might explain why the car chasing scene in Fast Five has almost nine million views on YouTube! There are five 2011 Dodge Charger Pursuits featured in the most popular car chasing scene of Fast Five, costing over $200,000 in total!
The adrenaline-pumping, multi-vehicle chase scene in Mission Impossible: Fallout (2018) ranks third on the list. With a collection of vehicles that include a BMW 740le and two Range Rover Sports, the scene is estimated to cost around $253,283 in total. Following closely behind is the action-fueled movie, Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) costing almost $200,000 for the opening car chase scene. Clocking up 41,711,603 views on YouTube the iconic opening scene is blazed with dystopian modified cars. In fact, director George Miller allegedly traveled around Australia to find scrap to create some of the vehicles for this scene.(4)
Further down the list is Terminator 2: Judgement Day, which features the Harley-Davidson FLSTF Fatboy motorcycle that Arnold Schwarzenegger rides throughout the movie. In fact, the motorcycle was sold for $480,0000 at an auction in 2018.(5)
Rounding off the top 10 is Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver, which got hearts racing. The 2017 instant classic is the most popular movie car chase on the list, amassing an impressive 82,027,075 views on YouTube and the opening car chasing scene is estimated to have cost almost $12,000!
Commenting on the research, Stephen Zeller, General Manager of Car Insurance at Compare the Market, says: “The thrill of movie car chases is like no other, and that’s evident from the views that these film clips have racked up. However, it’s important that life does not reflect art when it comes to these scenes. For any driver, it is always important to have the correct car insurance policy in place and to drive safely at all times to limit the risk of an accident.”
To see a full breakdown of the research, please click HERE.
Methodology
We collated data from various sources and articles to determine which were the most well-known movie car chases. In order to choose the most popular ones, we ranked them by using the number of YouTube views of the most relevant and most viewed video per each car chase.
We then worked with Car and Classic’s Head of Editorial, Chris Pollitt, to estimate the cost of the vehicles from each car chase scene. The movie scenes were then ranked based on the estimated cost per car chase scene.
Several of the featured movies used custom or specially modified vehicles. Where the studio hasn’t released the cost of these cars, we calculated a figure based on the cost of an unmodified version of the vehicle. Given the depreciation in value of each older car model featured in the movie scenes, we took inflation into consideration to rank the movies by the inflation-adjusted estimated cost.
The number of cars involved in each movie was taken from www.imcdb.org.
All data correct as of 19.4.2022
Please note that some videos and movies are older than others and this might influence the number of YouTube views. Furthermore, only the original movies were considered in the research and later remakes were not included.
Notes
- Based on YouTube views data
- All car chasing scenes per film can be found HERE
- Costs were estimated by working with Car and Classic’s Head of Editorial, Chris Pollitt, an automotive journalist with years of experience.
- The Guardian
- Bikes Republic
- Motor Trend
