pick of the week: If you think movies with $200 million budgets are over the top today, take a gander at what real Hollywood excess looks like. Released in 1963, "Cleopatra" cost $44 million, which would be a tidy $351 million in today's dollars. Part of the cost: 27,000 costumes, including star Elizabeth Taylor's 65 costume changes, each progressively more elaborate. And there were some epic — literally — screw-ups, among them a scene in which thousands of costumed extras saluted Cleo's grand entrance into Rome, footage that had to be completely reshot after editors realized that there was a gelato stand in the background. (This was before Photoshop, remember.) A restored version of the movie is showing at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Heights Theater in Minneapolis. It's the first offering in the theater's "Power of Persistence: Unwavering Women in Cinema" series that also includes "Funny Girl," "Wait Until Dark," "Fried Green Tomatoes" and "The Color Purple" — the combined budgets of which, adjusted for inflation, would be $176 million, or half of what was spent on "Cleopatra" alone.
Day by day: Friday is national Superhero Day. Your honoree can be old school (Superman), newfangled (Soldier Zero) or someone real (your mom).
recommended reading: Prom-goers are posting pictures of their dresses on social media as a way of warning their classmates not to wear the same gown. Learn about the practice in Thursday's Variety.
JEFF STRICKLER
