One of the most difficult things to ween out of any filmmaker or studio is a film's budget. More often than not they generally underestimate the amount by a good 20-30%, and of course it almost always never includes development costs or marketing/publicity expenses - an amount which can be as high as the film itself.

This past weekend though, The Wall Street Journal surprised everyone with a breakdown of some Summer movie budgets for the newest club on the block, the $200+ million epic. Amongst their estimates:

"Spider-Man 3" - $250-$300 million
"Superman Returns" - $261 million
"King Kong" - $250 million
"Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" - approaching $225 million
"X-Men: The Last Stand" - $210 million

How they got the numbers remains unsure but for the most part they do seem rather spot on with the word through the grapevine rather than the on the record statements.

Officially X3 cost $165m, Kong cost $207m, and Superman has drawn conflicting amounts ranging from $190m to $250m. In Superman's case its not sure whether that amount includes the $45-65 million in development costs accumulated over nearly ten years before Bryan Singer came onboard.

Also, Spider-Man 3 is still shooting so there's no telling how much higher it will go, whilst Pirates is being worked on to the last minute and may climb further. Pirates will be balanced though with the third film which will obviously re-use much of the elements from the second one and save on costs - by how much though is uncertain.