For movie memorabilia collectors, the dream of owning an often one-of-a-kind prop or costume featured on-screen in their favorite film can be as intoxicating as a James Bond martini, shaken not stirred.
Sure, with an eBay account and a few hundred bucks you may be able to pick up a mock pistol handled by Steven Segal in one of his random 1980s insults to the art of cinema. But when it comes to silver screen classics and wealthy collectors, major auction houses like Bonhams and Christie’s have gotten in on the act — trafficking in everything from “Back to the Future” DeLorean time machines to $3.1 million cowardly lion costumes.
While singing “Hooray for Hollywood,” we’ve rounded up some seriously expensive movie props and costumes. However, be aware this isn’t a rundown of the priciest artifacts ever sold. To spare you a list largely comprised of multi-million-dollar dresses worn by Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn, we’ve mixed things up with other, unique screen-used gems.
Before the curtain is raised, if you’ve ever wondered where the word “prop” originated, it springs from the term “theatrical property” — an object used in a stage play or film that comes from the production’s property department. Roll film.
James Bond’s Aston Martin DB5
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios / IMDb
On-screen appearances: “Goldfinger” (1964), “Thunderball” (1965)
Cruising the highway with a maniac driver hot on your bumper, who among us hasn’t wished we were behind the wheel of 007’s gadget-loaded Aston Martin DB5 to flip the switch unleashing an oil slick or smoke screen?
The British sports car company produced two prototype DB5s that Sean Connery drove in what are arguably the best Bond films. One of the cars, which later appeared in the comedy “The Cannonball Run,” was stolen from its Florida-based owner in 1997 and has never been recovered. The other, auctioned in 2010 for $4.6 million, came with nearly all its movie-customized “Q-Branch” gadgets. Sadly, one feature not included was the ejector seat for annoying passengers riding shotgun.
Luke Skywalker’s Lightsaber
20th Century Fox / IMDb
On-screen appearances: “Star Wars” (1977), “The Empire Strikes Back” (1980)
If you grew up in the late ’70s and early ’80s, chances are good you once clobbered childhood pals with a stick while making the “whoosh” sound of Luke Skywalker’s “elegant weapon for a more civilized age.”
Hamstrung by the first “Star Wars” movie’s relatively low production budget, the original Jedi lightsaber hilts waved by Mark Hamill were crafted from 1930s’-era Graflex camera flash handles that set-designer Roger Christian found in a photography shop.
For filming, Christian created “two or three” lightsaber handles; their glowing blades are special effects. Two of the props landed in the personal collection of “Star Wars” producer Gary Kurtz. Sold at auction in 2008 and 2017 — fetching $240,000 and $450,000, respectively — the latter model appeared only in “The Empire Strikes Back” and was procured by the Ripley’s Believe It or Not! chain of museums.
Alien ‘Chestburster’
20th Century Fox / IMDb
On-screen appearance: “Alien” (1979)
Sure, the full-size aliens from the first flick and its sequels scared the snot out of you. But if forced to pick the single, most terrifying scene in the franchise, it has to be the bloody shock of an infant alien exploding from John Hurt’s chest in the ’79 original. It even freaked out the cast, including Veronica Cartwright, who reportedly passed out.
After the junior alien bared teeth, screeched and scurried off the table, the screen-used model sold at a 2004 Bonhams auction for roughly $43,000. The buyer was British pop artist Chris de Burgh, begging the question: Who on earth is Chris de Burgh? Or maybe you know his hit song, “The Lady in Red”?
