The Cost of Making a Movie: Film Budget

Ever consider the cost of making a movie, film budget?  Film budgeting refers to the process by which a line producer, unit production manager or filmmaker prepares a budget for a film production.  I know that’s a lot of big words!  Lets just say the filmmaker or the producer of a film determines how much a film will cost to make.  The actual film budget could be a document over 150 pages long and is used to secure financing for the film and eventually lead to the making of the movie!  Now, a film budget for a film can include multiple drafts and might have to be reduced time ad time again.  You wouldn’t believe how much it could cost to make a big budget movie! The film budget itself is usually divided into four sections: above the line (creative talent), below the line (direct production costs), post-production (editing, visual effects, etc.), and other (insurance, completion bond, etc.) according to Wikipedia.  Have you ever wondered where all that money comes from when you see commercials for a big action film or a romantic comedy featuring expensive talent?  There are many ways a film can get financed.  This could be from a private investor, a film studio or entertainment company, or even from product placement.

So many things go into a film budget!  Everything costs something.  First you would have to consider how much a screenplay or story rights would cost!  I mean, a screenplay can be bought for as little as $40,000 to anywhere upwards of $5 million!  Crazy right!  Then you have to hire a director, producers, the cast.  And there are the production costs, that is, how much money it will take to actually make the movie.  You have to consider special and visual effects, music, lighting, the list goes on and on and the film budget gets bigger and bigger!  That is why sometimes filmmakers have to consider cutting costs when making a movie.  There are a lot of ways you could cut costs when producing a movie.  Filming night scenes for instance requires a lot of money!  It involves a lot of expensive lighting, plus you would have to pay the crew extra for nighttime rates.  Where you shoot a movie can also have an impact on a film budget.  If you film in famous or commercial locations it could cost a lot more than filming in a lesser known location.  The talent featured in films can also change the cost of a movie.  If you hire well known actors you would pay a lot more than you would someone lesser known.

In the end, the film budget could have a huge impact on the box office results.  What are some of your favorite movies?  Did these movies have a lot of special effects?  How about the actors, were they big name celebrities, or actors you may have never seen before?  There are so many elements that go into making a movie, but the budget for the movie affects everything else!

(photo via Philambt)

The total film budget for Spider-Man 2, released in 2004, was $200 million!  Here are some facts about the budget of this movie:  the story rights cost was $20 million, the screenplay cost was $10 million, and the cost for the cast itself was $30 million.

Spider-Man 2

(photo via Blogspot)

The total film budget for Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, released in 2003, was $118 million!  Some facts about the cost of this movie are the cost of the story rights and screenplay were $4 million, much less than Spider-Man 2.  The cost of the visual effects for this movie were $13 million, and the set design was $17.8 million.  As you can see for this movie as well as Spider-Man 2, the budget for action movies with big stars is huge!

Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life

(photo via Filetraffic)

Another big budget film was Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.  The total film budget for this film was $187.3 million!

Terminator 3 Rise of the Machines

(photo via Englishmoviez)

Not all movies have a huge film budget at their fingertips.  An example of a movie that used a film budget of $7,000 to make is El Mariachi.  The film itself was made for $7,000.  The budget increased when the movie was picked up for distribution by a movie studio, but was actually made for a lot less than some of these huge budget movies.

El Mariachi

 (photo via Impawards)

To find out more information about the film budget for these movies and others check out Wikipedia.  And next time you go to the movies or watch one on TV, take the time to notice things about the movie other than the movie itself!  How much do you think it took to make it?  Movie studios are sometimes reluctant to release the details of a film budget, so you may never know for sure, but if it includes some of the things here, you can probably get a pretty good idea!