Hi Filmmakers,
Have you noticed that some streamers and studios are not publishing their movie budgets? Unfortunately this makes it difficult to find reliable comps to show investors. I wasn’t even able to find an article about this trend!
Streamers in particular are guilty of this omission and considering how much content they influence, it makes life a little harder for creators. After all, how would you know what your project should cost without some comparable movies that were also streamed?
WHAT DO YOU THINK? Should studios and streamers be allowed to keep their budgets secret??
If they can hide ROI from the content creators that license them content, I think it's fair to say they can hide any information on their original content.
I sense there ain't gonna be any referendum bout this, so...
No, you don't want to see their budgets, and here's why. Your budget should not be based on someone else's, and you probably won't make films the same ways they do anyway.
The same script shot by Michael Mann will be much more expensive than if it is shot by Kevin Smith. There are so many factors that affect a film budget. And content made by streamers will not be anywhere near the same process as content that is independently financed.
All that said, budgets are not as elusive as you might think. When you know enough about them for them to be of use to you, by then you will probably know how to find them.
The first step is to watch independently funded films.
Good points Vasco Phillip de Sousa but I think that budgets should be listed in an accessible database so that anyone, especially content creators, can get a sense of the cost range for a particular project. We need this data as creators - whether we work for streamers or independently finance- to construct realistic comps so the next creator can see cost estimates and where overruns are likely to occur.
Also, are they all Netflix originals? If Netflix is just the distributor, then they would not have access to the budget breakdown.
There are plenty of films we do have the budget to. Check out interviews in the trades (like Daily Variety), and they will tell you not only the budgets for many independent films, but why. That is much more useful than just seeing a number.