Film Budget
The $500,000. budget given by IMDB and Wikipedia is half what it should be.
Kirk Douglas' salary was $150,000. Quinn got $40,000. The grecian galley
cost $25,000. to construct. There were 7 writers to be paid, including two
Hollywood veterans. It had an American-Italian crew and was a color production.
All of this tells you this budget number is wrong. The picture was co-funded by
Italian Lux Films/Ponti-DeLaurentiis, and Paramount USA, utilizing Paramount of
Italy's frozen lira. The figures given in by a 1953 Italian Industry source indicate
325,000,000 lira from each side. That would be $1,040,000. in 1953 US dollars
and is probably the correct production budget.