Misc

9 Construction Projects That Broke the Bank

Published

9 years ago

May 5, 2015

Jeff Desjardins

9 Construction Projects That Broke the Bank

Large and sophisticated construction projects have a tendency to go over-budget and to sometimes stall indefinitely. However, there have been some that have disappointed more than others. Today’s infographic covers some of the most notorious construction projects that quadrupled in cost, become obsolete, or were downright botched.

For good reference before reading this list, it may be worth checking out this previous infographic: Top 10 Civil Engineering Projects of All-Time.

10 Construction Projects that Broke the Bank

1. Ryugyong Hotel, Pyongyang (North Korea)

Construction began in 1987 and stopped in 1992 after North Korea spent as much as 2 percent of its GDP on the project and funding dried up.

2. Montreal-Mirabel Airport (Canada)

After $1 billion and five years of construction, this airport was hoped to take 50 million passengers a year. Instead it took 2.8 million, and ended up becoming a testing and cargo airport.

3. Millennium Dome, London (United Kingdom)

Costing $1.1 billion, ticket sales for attractions were well below expectations. The dome’s operator only made $275 million in revenues and were accused of fraud by vendors and suppliers.

4. Burj Khalifa, Dubai (United Arab Emirates)

The construction of the world’s tallest building coincided with the global financial crisis. Taking six years and costing $1.5 billion, Dubai had to borrow money from Abu Dhabi to complete it and the majority of residencies remain vacant.

5. Strait of Messina Bridge (Italy)

This 3.3 km bridge was expected to link Sicily to the Italian mainland. In 2013, it was discontinued because of lack of funds, and concerns that money would go to the Sicilian and Calabrian mafias.

6. Mose Project, Venice (Italy)

This project hopes to prevent Venice from sinking deeper into the lagoon on which the city is located. $7 billion has been spent to date, but it has been hampered with delays because of Italy’s economic condition.

7. The Channel Tunnel (UK and France)

50km long, underneath the English Channel, the Channel Tunnel continues to be a heavy financial toll. The rail link connecting London to the British side of the Channel opened, costing $13.8 billion, the most expensive individual construction effort in the country’s history.

8. The Big Dig, Boston (United States)

The original cost estimate for the Big Dig, an underground road of eight to ten lanes, was expected to be $2.6 billion. Now it is expected that with interest, the total cost will come to $22 billion.

9. The International Space Station (Space!)

Costing over $100 billion over 13 years, the space station is the most expensive science project ever attempted. Critics suggest that the money could have better spent on robotic spacecraft missions or space exploration.

Original graphic from: Gutter Masters

Related Topics:buildings construction engineering expensive

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Technology

Charting Grand Theft Auto: GTA’s Budget and Revenues

Dive into the GTA budget through the years, with GTA VI set to be the most expensive video game of all time.

Published

1 day ago

December 5, 2023

Marcus Lu

A cropped chart comparing the GTA budget and revenue across three game titles.

Charting Grand Theft Auto: GTA’s Budget and Revenues

Over 10 years since the launch of Grand Theft Auto V (GTA V), the second most-sold video game in history, Rockstar Games has announced its sequel GTA VI will be “coming 2025.”

As the anticipation only grows for this next big entry in the franchise, we take a look at the GTA budget through the years. How much have the last two games cost to make, how much have they earned, and how do they compare with the latest entry?

Data for this visualization comes from Statista, TweakTown, and Twitch Metrics.

How Much Has GTA VI Cost to Make?

The GTA franchise has grown enormously in scale from humble beginnings as a top-down, 2D video game in 1997. Fifteen installments later, the upcoming release, GTA VI, is estimated to be the most expensive video game to be made yet.

Here’s a look at how much GTA VI and the last two major releases cost, and how much revenue they’ve earned as of August 2023.

Year	Title	Production Costs ($)	Revenue ($)	Copies Sold
2025 (est.)	GTA VI	$2B (rumored)	N/A	N/A
2013	GTA V	$265M	$7.7B	185M
2008	GTA IV	$100M	$2B	25M

In 2008, GTA IV cost around $100 million—already a budget that rivalled big Hollywood releases. However with 25 million copies sold, the game earned nearly $2 billion—a five-fold return on its production cost.

Five years later, GTA V (2013) cost more than $200 million to make—twice GTA IV’s budget. A decade after its release, GTA V has generated close to $8 billion, with hundreds of millions in annual revenue from subscriptions and in-game purchases—a model that its successor is sure to follow.

In fact, subscription fees and in-game purchases represented 78% of Take-Two Interactive’s (parent of GTA developer Rockstar Games) revenues in 2023.

Analysts estimate the to-be-released GTA VI’s costs at $2 billion, including marketing and other expenses. A massive open-world (set in the Miami-inspired “Vice City”), cutting edge graphics, and a reportedly brand-new game engine are all reasons for the game’s outsized budget.

For comparison, the current most expensive games to have been made include Red Dead Redemption 2 (also by Rockstar) and Star Citizen, both reportedly with a $500 million budget.

Meanwhile, Take-Two Interactive shares are up more than 50% for the year.