Can someone put that in perspective for me?
The (estimated) budget was 15 million dollars...
The (estimated) budget for "Tom Jones" (1963) was 1 million dollars..
The (estimated) budget for "From Russia With Love (1963) was 2 million dollars...
I don't understand the questions.
Screen tests don't cost that much, actors aren't paid for screen tests, and Finney wasn't in the movie. So... ???
From IMDb Trivia page:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056172/trivia?ref_=tt_trv_trv
Their second choice [after Marlon Brando turned it down] Finney was put through extensive screen tests costing 100-thousand pounds sterling, but he refused to sign a 7-year contract demanded by Spiegel. O'Toole signed the 7-year contract and got the part.
from the same page:
After deciding to cast an unknown actor in the role of T.E. Lawrence, Sir David Lean arranged a screen test for Albert Finney shortly before the release of the movie Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960), which would make Finney a star. The extensive screen test involved costumes, sets, and included actors Ferdy Mayne and Laurence Payne, and it was shot over four days at a cost of £100,000. In addition to Lean, the test was attended by cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth, assistant director Gerry O'Hara, editor Anne V. Coates, producer Sam Spiegel, and Anthony Nutting, an expert on Arabian history. It was unanimously agreed that the screen test was excellent, and Finney was offered the part of Lawrence. However, Finney turned it down, as he did not want to be committed to the long-term contract that he would have been required to sign.
That sounds insane - four days costing $100,000 when that could be the budget for an entire film? Sets for a screen test? Okay, maybe costumes, but I've never heard of anyone building sets for a screen test!
Well, maybe that was Finney's drinks budget.