2012 Budget

What is the budget of 2012?

"2012," an action released in 2009, was directed by Roland Emmerich and stars John Cusack, Amanda Peet. The production budget was $200,000,000, placing it in the blockbuster range for action productions of its era.

Key Budget Allocation Categories

While specific budget breakdowns are not publicly available, typical cost drivers for an action production like this include:

• Stunts, Action Sequences & Visual Effects: Action films allocate a substantial portion of their budget to choreographing and executing practical stunts, pyrotechnics, and CGI-heavy sequences.
• Above-the-Line Talent (Cast & Director): A-list talent commands significant upfront fees plus backend participation.
• Production Design, Sets & Locations: Action films frequently require multiple international shooting locations, large-scale set construction, vehicle acquisitions and modifications, and specialized equipment , all of which drive production costs well above those of dialogue-driven genres.
• Development: Graham Hancock's Fingerprints of the Gods was listed in 2012 credits as the film's inspiration, and Emmerich said in a Time Out interview: "I always wanted to do a biblical flood movie, but I never felt I had the hook.

What were the major cost factors in 2012?

Several factors contributed to the overall production costs of "2012."

• Stunts: Stunts, Action Sequences & Visual Effects is one of the primary cost drivers in action productions of this scale.
• Above-the-Line Talent (Cast: Above-the-Line Talent (Cast & Director) is one of the primary cost drivers in action productions of this scale.
• Production Design: Production Design, Sets & Locations is one of the primary cost drivers in action productions of this scale.

How Does 2012's Budget Compare to Similar Films?

At $200,000,000, 2012 sits in the blockbuster range. Here is how it compares to productions with a similar budget:

• The Dark Knight (2008): Budget $185,000,000, Worldwide Gross $1,004,558,444

The median budget for wide-release action films in the 2000s ranges from $30 to 80M for mid-budget to $150M+ for tentpoles.

2012 Box Office Performance

"2012" earned $166,112,167 domestically and $791,217,826 worldwide at the box office. Against a production budget of $200,000,000, the film performed strongly at the box office.

A film typically needs to earn approximately twice its production budget to cover marketing and distribution costs. For "2012," that break-even threshold was roughly $400,000,000. With worldwide earnings of $791,217,826, the film cleared that threshold comfortably.

• Production Budget: $200,000,000
• Worldwide Gross: $791,217,826
• Net Return: $591,217,826
• ROI: approximately 295.6%

At 295.6%, "2012" earned roughly $3.96 for every $1 invested in production.

2012 Production History

Graham Hancock's Fingerprints of the Gods was listed in 2012 credits as the film's inspiration, and Emmerich said in a Time Out interview: "I always wanted to do a biblical flood movie, but I never felt I had the hook. I first read about the Earth's crust displacement theory in Graham Hancock's Fingerprints of the Gods." He and composer-producer Harald Kloser worked closely together, co-writing a spec script (also titled 2012) which was marketed to studios in February 2008. A number of studios heard budget projection and story plans from Emmerich and his representatives, a process the director had previously undertaken for Independence Day (1996) and The Day After Tomorrow (2004).

Filming, originally scheduled to begin in Los Angeles in July 2008, commenced in Kamloops, Savona, Cache Creek, and Ashcroft, British Columbia, in early August 2008 and wrapped in mid-October. With the possibility of a Screen Actors Guild strike looming in the wake of the 2007 to 08 Writers Guild of America strike, the film's producers drew up a contingency plan in case of a walkout by actors. Uncharted Territory, Digital Domain, Double Negative, Scanline, and Sony Pictures Imageworks were hired to create the film's visual effects.

The film's score was composed by Harald Kloser and Thomas Wander. Adam Lambert contributed a song to the film, "Time for Miracles", which was written by Alain Johannes and Natasha Shneider. The 24-song soundtrack includes "Fades Like a Photograph" by Filter and "It Ain't the End of the World" by George Segal and Blu Mankuma. "Master of Shadows" by Two Steps from Hell was used for the film's trailers.

Awards and Recognition

5 wins & 21 nominations total

Critical Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval percentage of 40% based on 242 reviews, with the critics consensus reading: "Roland Emmerich's 2012 provides plenty of visual thrills, but lacks a strong enough script to support its massive scope and inflated length." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 49 out of 100 based on 34 critic reviews, meaning "Mixed or Average". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.