We’d all get starstruck at the thought of owning a piece of memorabilia from our favorite movie. But paying millions for the privilege? That’s reserved for a few ultra-keen movie buffs or stars with cash to splash. Read on to find out the jaw-dropping sums people have paid for movie costumes and props, from Sam's piano to Marilyn Monroe’s iconic white dress.
Few items are as iconic to the Star Wars saga as the lightsaber, and in December 2020 a lightsaber used by Ewan McGregor in the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi caused a stir among collectors when it went up for auction. The prop notably featured in the climactic battle between Obi-Wan and the saga’s notorious villain Darth Vader in Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, and sold for $159,000 at the Prop Store auction.
The lightsaber, similar in style to this Luke Walker version auctioned in 2018, is made of a combination of machined aluminum and cast resin detailing, with a metal core throughout. However it's not the most expensive lightsaber in our round-up.
Will Ferrell's iconic Buddy the elf costume from 2003's festive classic Elf recently sold for $235,000 at a Prop Store auction in London.
In 1962 the late Sean Connery was the first actor to bring Ian Fleming’s James Bond to life in the first 007 movie Dr. No. And so when a Walther PP handgun used by Connery during the film went up for sale in Beverly Hills in December 2020 it was expected to sell for a high price. In fact, the pistol prop exceeded all expectations…
The winning bidder, who asked to remain anonymous, paid $256,000 for the deactivated gun – higher than the $150,000-$200,000 estimate. The collector’s value of the prop was likely inflated after Connery passed away at the end of October 2020, aged 90.
Considered by many as one of the best sci-fi films of all time, Ridley Scott's cult classic Blade Runner follows former police officer Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) as he pursues and terminates fugitive replicants who have stolen a spaceship and returned to Earth to find their creator. The cult classic is still renowned for its futuristic sets and props.
One of the stars of the 2000 desert island film Cast Away, despite being an inanimate object, one of the volleyballs that Tom Hanks' character Chuck Noland finds in a washed-up package and christens 'Wilson' sold for $308,000 at a Prop Store auction in London last year.
The 1997 film version of the 1912 sinking of the Titanic continues to bring viewers to tears to this day. Props emblematic of Jack and Rose’s tragic love story are eagerly sought out by fans seeking to own a piece of the story, and have sold for hundreds of thousands at auction.
As we've already seen props from the Star Wars franchise are popular with collectors. And this miniature filming version of the agile TIE Starfighter ship, the unforgettable symbol of the Imperial fleet used in Episode IV: A New Hope's fast-paced dogfights, was no exception. Its sale for $402,500 made it the most expensive Star Wars memorabilia until 2011, when a camera lens used by George Lucas during filming sold for $625,000.
Another iconic Star Wars lot is the lightsaber used by Mark Hamill's Luke Skywalker and Alec Guinness' Obi-Wan Kenobi in A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. The early lightsaber was made from the tube of an old Graflex camera handheld flash and during filming a wooden pole was placed where the blade was meant to be. The pole was doused in a special projection paint so that the special effects team could add the glow (more recent films have substituted CGI). The makeshift prop sold for $450,000 in 2017.
James Cameron's Terminator 2: Judgment Day is considered to be one of the best sequels ever made. The computer-generated imagery, especially that of Robert Patrick's liquid-metal T-1000 enemy cyborg, laid the groundwork for much of the movie magic we’ve come to take for granted in modern blockbusters. However, it is one of the film's animatronic props that has generated the most cash at auction...
The first in the Indiana Jones series of films, Raiders of the Lost Ark grossed almost $390 million at the box office in the early 1980s, which is the equivalent of $1.1 billion (£826m) in today’s money. With fans worldwide, it’s unsurprising that props from the franchise can fetch a hefty sum.
The most impressive sale is the famous fedora hat worn by leading actor Harrison Ford, which was sold through Prop Store in London for $524,000 in 2018. The famous hat features Ford’s signature on its inner band, and its design was a joint effort from Deborah Nadoolman Landis, Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas.
Six DeLorean DMC-12 cars – and one fiberglass replica – were bought for the filming of the Back to the Future trilogy. The original 'A' DeLorean time machine car from the movies was carefully restored and is now on display at the Petersen Automotive Museum in LA, while a second DeLorean is displayed at Universal Studios Orlando.
In 2011, the third known DeLorean, having been through extensive refurbishment, came up for auction. It sold for $541,000, with some of the proceeds going to the Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research.
It's one of the most famous opening scenes in Hollywood history: Holly Golightly – played by Audrey Hepburn in her most iconic role – emerging from a bright yellow taxi onto a deserted Fifth Avenue in New York. She nibbles a pastry while looking in Tiffany's shop window, wearing "the most famous little black dress of all time". The black dress, designed by French designer Hubert de Givenchy, was sold at an auction in London for $590,420 in 2006 by author Dominique Lapierre.
The 'Michael Delaney' Swiss Heuer wristwatch from fast-paced drama Le Mans sold for $799,500 in 2012, according to Forbes. The iconic 'Monaco' is still produced today and is one of Tag Heuer's most popular sport timepieces. Reports suggest that the auctioned watch was one of at least two Monaco watches worn by actor Steve McQueen during shooting of the film, but this lot was the more 'mint' version, preserved for photographic purposes, explaining why it is in such excellent condition.
The eponymous car driven and flown by Caractacus Potts in the musical adventure was designed by Ken Adams and was manufactured by Alan Mann Racing in 1967. A total of six Chitty Chitty Bang Bang cars were produced for filming, including an engine-less version for the trailers, a car for the flying scenes, a car for the transformations and a smaller version for driving scenes.
However, only one was a fully functioning road-ready car with genuine UK registration. This was sold for $805,000 to Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson in 2011, coming under its $1 million suggested sale value. He now uses it as a fundraising vehicle.
Yet it’s not just famous props that have attracted huge sums at auction. In September 2017, it was reported that Tiffany & Co. had purchased the original script from Breakfast at Tiffany's for an eye-watering $846,619. The sale of Audrey Hepburn’s copy of the script was included in a sale organized by her sons, including more than 250 items from her life and career, which accrued a massive $6.2 million in total.
Another hugely successful film in the Star Wars saga, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back was the second to feature one of Hollywood’s most menacing villains, Darth Vader. Millions of dollars’ worth of memorabilia linked to the character has sold in the past 40 years, but costumes from the original films have deep-pocketed fans splashing the most cash.
Star Wars lovers swarmed to a Los Angeles auction in September 2019 when the Empire Strikes Back Darth Vader fiberglass mask went up for sale through Profiles in History. The mask had an estimated sale price of $500,000, but experts were stunned when the helmet sold for nearly twice that at $900,000. An anonymous buyer is now in possession of the iconic piece.
When you think of Steve McQueen, perhaps the most iconic images that pop into your mind are from The Great Escape (1963) or Bullitt (1968). However, the most expensive prop linked to the 'King of Cool' is the driving suit he wore as Michael Delaney in Le Mans. One of the three surviving suits used sold in 2011 for $984,000. Amazingly it had been owned by Timothy Davies from Wolverhampton, England for 40 years after he had won it in a newspaper competition.
The Lotus Esprit from The Spy Who Loved Me is one of the more elaborate cars conceived in the James Bond franchise. The submarine car was designed by Perry Oceanographic and was fully capable of operating underwater. However, actor Roger Moore was not the one who drove it in the sea – it was operated by an ex-Navy Seal. It sold for $997,000 in 2013, with the buyer none other than billionaire Elon Musk.
The Sound of Music came out in 1965, and went on to become the highest-grossing film of all time, surpassing Gone with the Wind. It held the title for five years. And so the outfits Maria – played by Julie Andrews – makes from old curtains for the seven Von Trapp children are recognized all over the world, and coveted by collectors.
It’s believed that actress Judy Garland had 10 pinafore dresses for her role as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, and when one of two that were actually worn during filming went up for sale in 2015 it certainly caught bidders’ attention. The blue gingham dress fetched well over its estimate when it sold for $1.56 million, and it even came with sweat stain marks around the neck.
Anothe serious money-maker from The Wizard of Oz were the ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland, of which only five pairs are known to survive. The last pair to sell at auction in 2012 went for $2 million, bought by Leonardo DiCaprio and Steven Spielberg to donate to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Intriguingly, another pair, which had been stolen during a break-in to the Judy Garland Museum in 2005, was discovered by police in September 2018.
Another pricey piece from the film was the cowardly lion costume worn by Bert Lahr, which was created from real lion skin and fur and weighed in at almost 60lb, which made it incredibly hot to wear under the intense studio lights. After the film was done and dusted, the costume was collected by a member of the film crew, who believed it would make a great Halloween costume. But it sat in a bag in his house for years and time took its toll. After its rediscovery, the costume had to be restored by 21 artisans over a period of two years before it sold at auction for $3,077,000 in 2014 at Bonhams.
One of the most famous instruments in the world, the piano that Ingrid Bergman stood next to when she delivered one of Hollywood’s unforgettable lines – “Play it, Sam. Play As Time Goes By" – is one of the most coveted movie props in the world. The short little upright from Rick’s Café Américain in the movie Casablanca was hardly a grand, but it certainly demanded a grand price at auction...
Sam’s Piano was sold for $3.4 million at a 2014 auction in New York. The lot description revealed that this particular piano had never been sold at auction, but the other one used in the film, in the Paris flashback scene, was auctioned for $602,500 in 2012. Both instruments have only 58 keys, 30 fewer than on conventional modern pianos, and the strings and sounding boards are shorter as well.
The Ascot dress and hat worn by Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady was sold at auction in 2011 for a whopping $3.7 million. The Edwardian-style white and black lace dress with black bow detail was designed by the legendary Cecil Beaton, who served as both costume designer and art director on the film, roles that subsequently won him Academy Awards in both categories.
The costume was worn during the musical number Ascot Gavotte, which features Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle (Hepburn) out in high society for the first time. The dress (and hat) sold as part of a collection from actress Debbie Reynolds, who collected over 3,500 costumes from films throughout Hollywood history in the hope of one day creating a museum. Surprisingly, the Ascot outift isn't the most expensive movie costume, or even dress, ever sold, as we'll see…
One of the super-stylish Aston Martin DB5s driven by Sean Connery as James Bond in the film Goldfinger sold at auction for $4.1 million in 2010. The car, known as the 'Road Car', was one of two Aston Martins that EON Productions was given for use and was for regular driving. However, it was then equipped with all the special spy gear, and went on to appear in Thunderball. The other Goldfinger DB5, outfitted with add-ons like rotating number plates and guns that appeared through the tail lights and dubbed the 'Effects Car', was stolen in 1997 from the private collector who bought it, although investigators believe it's now in the Middle East. It's valued at $25 million according to a report by The Times.
Starring Humphrey Bogart as detective Sam Spade, The Maltese Falcon is one of the true classics of the film noir genre. The lead statuette featured in the movie became one of the most expensive pieces of movie memorabilia ever when it sold for $4.1 million to Las Vegas hotel and casino billionaire Steve Wynne at auction in 2013.
Featuring stunning visual effects and electronic sounds that were groundbreaking for its day, Forbidden Planet has become a sci-fi cult classic. The film follows the exploits of the C-57D, an earth ship sent to Altair 4 to find out what happened to a colony mission sent there 20 years earlier. It was the first movie to be set entirely on another planet.
Robby, the seven-foot-tall robot from the 1950s adventure, sold at auction for $5.38 million in New York in 2017. The lot also included the Jeep Robby drives on Altair IV, the auxiliary control panel and his original MGM packing crates. After Forbidden Planet, Robby racked up more than two dozen film and TV credits, including The Invisible Boy, The Thin Man and Lost In Space.
The most expensive movie costume ever is Marilyn Monroe’s iconic white dress from The Seven Year Itch, which sold at auction in Los Angeles in 2011. Like Audrey Hepburn's My Fair Lady Ascot dress, it was part of Debbie Reynolds' amazing collection, which also included the headdress worn by Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra (1963) and a bowler hat once owned by Charlie Chaplin.
When costume designer William Travilla picked the dress for Monroe, he didn't have a clue that she would stand over a subway grate and make movie history. The dress is so small that it couldn’t fit onto a modern Size 2 mannequin when it was attempted to be displayed, and in 1955 it had to be sewn onto the actress, much like most of Monroe’s costumes. These days the dress itself has been reported to have slowly tarnished with time, fading from white into a yellowish brown color.
Now read: Valuable movie posters you might have stashed away