`Superman Returns' director says his movie didn't cost $250 million

Director Bryan Singer quashes the rumor that `Superman Returns' cost $250 million to make. Singer says, "The movie was budgeted at $184.5 million and will probably climb with visual effects and variables that occur in a movie of this magnitude, with 1,400 visual effects, etc., to somewhere still south of $200 million."

Of course, once Warner Brothers has paid all the marketing bills for the film, the tab will undoubtedly be close to $250 million. That's a big bet.

According to The Numbers, the 1978 "Superman" cost $55 million to make; "Superman II" cost $25 million. Of all the Christopher Reeve era films, the first "Superman" grossed the most worldwide ($300 million). "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace," released in 1987, made a whopping $11 million at the U.S. box office.