List of most expensive music videos

This page lists the most expensive music videos ever made, with costs of $500,000 or more. David Bowie's video for the 1980 single Ashes to Ashes was the first music video to exceed this sum. Janet Jackson leads with six videos on the list, while Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, and Ayumi Hamasaki have five each. Hamasaki, T-ara and B.A.P are also the only Asian artists to appear on this list. Madonna has made four appearances in the top 5 making her the artist with the most expensive videos of all time put together. Mylène Farmer has made 3 appearances. TLC, Kanye West, Busta Rhymes, Guns N' Roses, and MC Hammer appear on the list twice. Joseph Kahn has directed four videos on this list while Hype Williams and Wataru Takeishi have directed three videos on the list. Nigel Dick, Mark Romanek and John Landis appear twice on this list, the latter with videos both directed for Michael Jackson.

Mark Romanek, the director of Michael and Janet Jackson's "Scream", which is claimed to be the most expensive music video ever made, has since denied this claim saying that there were two other music videos from the same era which cost "millions more" than the video for "Scream".^[1]

Indicates the title was the most expensive of all time at the time of production

Most expensive music videos

Artist(s)	Song title	Director	Original air date	Production	Inflation-adjusted PC (2016)
Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson	"Scream"	Mark Romanek[2]	1995, May	$7,000,000[3]	$10,889,059
Madonna	"Die Another Day"	Traktor	2002, October 22	$6,100,000[4]	$8,038,908
Madonna	"Express Yourself"	David Fincher[5]	1989, May 17	$5,000,000[6]	$9,561,074
Madonna	"Bedtime Story"	Mark Romanek[7]	1995, March 10	$5,000,000[8]	$7,777,899
Michael Jackson (featuring L.T.B.)	"Black or White"	John Landis	1991, November 14	$4,000,000[9][10]	$6,961,153
Guns N' Roses	"Estranged"	Andy Morahan	1993, December	$4,000,000[11]	$6,563,465
Gwen Stefani	"Make Me Like You"	Sophie Muller[12]	2016, February 15	$4,000,000[13]	$4,000,000
Puff Daddy (featuring The Notorious B.I.G. & Busta Rhymes)	"Victory"	Marcus Nispel	1998, March 31	$2,700,000[3]	$3,926,521
MC Hammer	"2 Legit 2 Quit"	Rupert Wainwright[14]	1991, November	$2,500,000[9]	$4,222,789
Mariah Carey (featuring Jay-Z)	"Heartbreaker"	Brett Ratner	1999, August 16	$2,500,000[3]	$3,557,231
Janet Jackson	"Doesn't Really Matter"	Joseph Kahn[15]	2000, June 28	$2,500,000[3]	$3,441,063
Busta Rhymes & Janet Jackson	"What's It Gonna Be?!"	Hype Williams & Busta Rhymes	1999, March 12	$2,400,000[3]	$4,053,877
Celine Dion	"It's All Coming Back to Me Now"	Nigel Dick	1996, July 29	$2,300,000[16]	$3,476,109
Michael Jackson	"Bad"	Martin Scorsese[17]	1987, August 31	$2,200,000[3]	$4,590,100
Backstreet Boys	"Larger Than Life"	Joseph Kahn	1999, September 14	$2,100,000[3]	$2,988,074
Michael Jackson	"Remember the Time"	John Singleton	1992, February 3	$2,000,000[18]	$3,378,231
Missy Elliott	"She's a Bitch"	Hype Williams	1999, May 1	$2,000,000[3]	$2,845,785
George Michael	"Freeek!"	Joseph Kahn[19]	2002	$2,000,000[3]	$2,509,866
Ayumi Hamasaki	"My Name's Women"	Wataru Takeishi	2005, March 16	$2,000,000[16]	$2,427,330
Ayumi Hamasaki	"Fairyland"	Wataru Takeishi	2005, July 16	$2,000,000[3]	$2,427,330
Ayumi Hamasaki	"Green"	Kazuyoshi Shimomura	2008, December 17	$1,600,000[20]	$2,427,330
TLC	"Unpretty"	Paul Hunter	1999, August 29	$1,600,000[3]	$2,276,628
Guns N' Roses	"November Rain"	Andy Morahan	1992, June 2	$1,500,000	$2,533,673
Blackstreet & Janet Jackson (featuring Eve & Ja Rule)	"Girlfriend/Boyfriend"	Joseph Kahn	1999, March 23	$1,500,000[3]	$2,134,339
Madonna (featuring Nicki Minaj and M.I.A.)	"Give Me All Your Luvin'"	Megaforce[21]	2012, February 3	$1,500,000[22][23]	$1,580,547
MC Hammer	"Here Comes the Hammer"	MC Hammer	1991, January 1	$1,300,000[24]	$2,358,609
The Fugees	"Ready or Not"	Marcus Nispel[25]	1996, August 29	$1,300,000[26]	$1,964,757
Kanye West	"Stronger"	Hype Williams	2007, July	$1,200,000[3]	$1,371,786
Duran Duran	"The Wild Boys"	Russell Mulcahy	1984	$1,000,000+[27]	$2,281,550
Michael Jackson	"Thriller"	John Landis	1983, December 2	$1,000,000[28]	$2,617,875
Janet Jackson (with Nelly)	"Call on Me"	Hype Williams	2006, July 26	$1,000,000[16]	$2,351,601
The Sisters of Mercy	"Dominion/Mother Russia"	Andrew Eldritch	1988, February	$1,000,000[29]	$2,004,221
The Rolling Stones	"Love Is Strong"	David Fincher	1994	$1,000,000[30]	$1,599,237
TLC	"Waterfalls"	F. Gary Gray	1995	$1,000,000 [31]	$1,555,580
Sisqó (featuring Foxy Brown)	"Thong Song" (remix)	Little X	2000	$1,000,000[32]	$1,376,425
Britney Spears	"Toxic"	Joseph Kahn[33]	2004, January 13	$1,000,000[34]	$1,254,933
Kanye West (featuring Lupe Fiasco)	"Touch the Sky"	Chris Milk	2006, April	$1,000,000[35]	$1,175,801
Ayumi Hamasaki	"Jewel"	Wataru Takeishi	2006, November	$1,100,000[16]	$1,293,381
Mylène Farmer	"L'Âme-stram-gram"	Ching Siu-Tung	1999	$1,000,000[36]	$1,422,893
Janet Jackson	"I Get Lonely"	Paul Hunter	1998, March	$1,000,000[37]	$1,454,267
Ayumi Hamasaki	"Virgin Road"	Masashi Muto	2010, September 27	$1,000,000[38]	$1,086,983
T-ara	"Cry Cry / Lovey Dovey"	Cha Eun Taek	2011, November 11	$1,000,000[39]	$1,053,698
B.A.P	"One Shot"	Kang Ji Won & Kim Ki-bum	2013, February 12	$915,000[40]	$931,078
Britney Spears	"Work Bitch"	Ben Mor	2013, October 1	$850,000[41]	$864,936
Pia Zadora	"Heartbeat of Love"	Dominic Sena[42]	1989	$800,000[42]	$1,529,772
Britney Spears	"Oops!...I Did It Again"	Nigel Dick	2000, April 10	$750,000[43]	$1,032,319
Mylène Farmer	"California"	Abel Ferrara	1996, March 20	$700,000[44]	$1,057,946
David Bowie	"Ashes to Ashes"	David Bowie & David Mallet[45]	1980 May	$582,000[46][47]	$1,674,308
Britney Spears	"Hold It Against Me"	Jonas Åkerlund[48]	2011, February 17	$500,000[49]	$508,786
Mylène Farmer	"Pourvu qu'elles soient douces"	Laurent Boutonnat	1988, September 12	$500,000[44]	$1,002,110
Britney Spears	"Piece of Me"	Wayne Isham[50]	2007, December 14	$500,000[51]	$571,578
2NE1	"Come Back Home"	Teddy Park	2014, March 4	$500,000	$500,633

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