The average cost to produce and market a major studio movie is around $100 million, according to Investopedia, and the largest chunks of the budget usually go to paying the cast and staff, utilizing CGI and special effects and marketing. These pricey productions present a unique set of risks, and filmmakers should make sure they have solid insurance coverage in place. This could include a wide variety of policies, including general liability, property, auto, workers' comp and cybersecurity. Another box was added to this policy checklist in 2020 with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. That spring, film sets shut down rapidly as lockdowns were implemented worldwide. With these shutdowns came extraordinary loss, which left many production teams scrambling to figure out whether their insurance protected them from these pandemic disruptions. Some have even taken their fight for COVID coverage to court. In August 2021, Paramount sued their insurer when they refused to cover the majority of pandemic-related losses on "Mission: Impossible 7," and instead offered to pay $1 million dollars to the studio. According to Variety, production on the film was delayed seven times between February 2020 and June 2021. Paramount argued that the shutdowns should have triggered their "cast insurance" policy, which provided $100 million in coverage for losses that result when essential crew, cast or personnel are unable to work due to sickness, death or kidnapping. In the slideshow above, we discuss seven movies that pushed the limits of risk in filmmaking — as well as the losses many of these productions faced as the result of those risks.

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