For eye-watering sums of money, items from films like Castaway, Star Wars, The Spy Who Loved Me, and ET have been hit by the hammer. The Mirror examines some of the memorabilia that has been sold for millions of dollars.
The sale of Citizen Kane’s Rosebud sled this week for an eye-watering $ 14.75 million (£11 million) is unquestionably big business.
In the 1941 movie starring Orson Welles, and regarded as one of the greatest in film history, Rosebud represented the happy times Kane had playing in the snow as a child and ultimately the idealized past that he yearned for throughout his life.
Unknown who purchased the item, but it was Joe Dante, the director, who had previously worked on Explorers on the Paramount lot and was given the deal in 1984. The 1941 film prop is a “testament to the enduring power of storytelling,” according to Dante.
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Rosebud isn’t the only movie memorabilia that has ever been sold, though. A pair of ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz from 1939 were purchased last year for a cool $32.5 million (£24.2%).
But why do movie replicas cost so much?
Auctioneer Addison Gelpey explains, “There are two reasons movie memorabilia is such a money spinner.” One reason is that buyers are big fans of the movies and are collectors, or they want to sell them because so many people watch them, so the price will eventually increase. You have a fantastic investment because these movies are well-known. You also have a piece of film history, not just a scene from that movie.
What other movies have fallen victim to the hammer?
Humphrey Bogart’s statuette from The Maltese Falcon (1941), sold for $4.1 million ($2.5 million) in 2013.
Wilson the volleyball from the 2000 film Cast Away, starring Tom Hanks, sold for $ 308,000 (£230k) at a London Prop Store auction in 2000.
In the 1995 TV Pride & Prejudice adaptation, Colin Firth’s Mr. Darcy wore a “wet shirt” costume that cost $25, 000 (£20k) in 2024.
Darth Vader’s fibreglass mask from The Empire Strikes Back sold for $900, 000 (£698k) in 2019.
Harrison Ford’s bullwhip from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) fetched $525, 000 (£417k) at auction in 2024. The well-known fedora hat worn by Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark was sold for $524, 000 (£456k) in London in 2018 via the Prop Store.
The white three-piece suit that John Travolta’s Tony Manero wears in Saturday Night Fever (1997) sold for $260, 000 (£208k) in 2023.
In 2022, the mechatronic for the film ET The Extra Terrestrial (1982) was sold for $2.56 million (£2 million).
Terminator’s liquid-metal T-1000 enemy cyborg – a full-scale T-800 endoskeleton, from Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991) sold for $488, 750 (£236k) in 2007.
Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, sold The Lotus Esprit from The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) for $ 997,000 (£610k) in 2013.
Source: Mirror
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