Production Budget Analysis

What was the production budget for A Futile and Stupid Gesture?

Directed by David Wain, with Will Forte, Domhnall Gleeson, Martin Mull leading the cast, A Futile and Stupid Gesture was produced by Abominable Pictures with a confirmed budget of $10,000,000, placing it in the low-budget category for comedy films.

At $10,000,000, A Futile and Stupid Gesture was produced on a modest budget. Lower-budget films benefit from reduced break-even thresholds, with profitability achievable at approximately $25,000,000.

Budget Comparison — Similar Productions

• By the Sea (2015): Budget $10,000,000 | Gross $3,727,746 → ROI: -63% • Eye for an Eye (2025): Budget $10,000,000 | Gross N/A • Goal! (2005): Budget $10,000,000 | Gross $27,610,873 → ROI: 176% • Phantom (2013): Budget $10,000,000 | Gross $1,197,759 → ROI: -88% • War of the Worlds (2025): Budget $10,000,000 | Gross N/A

Key Budget Allocation Categories

▸ Talent Salaries & Producing Deals Established comedic talent can command $15–20 million per film, with top-tier stars earning even more through producing credits and backend deals. Comedy ensembles multiply this cost across several well-known performers.

▸ Production & Location Filming While comedies generally avoid the VFX costs of action films, location shooting in recognizable cities or exotic locales adds meaningful production expense.

▸ Marketing & P&A (Prints & Advertising) Comedies rely heavily on marketing to build opening-weekend momentum. Studios typically spend 50–100% of the production budget on marketing, with comedy trailers and social media campaigns being particularly expensive.

Key Production Personnel

CAST: Will Forte, Domhnall Gleeson, Martin Mull, Neil Casey, Jon Daly Key roles: Will Forte as Doug Kenney; Domhnall Gleeson as Henry Beard; Martin Mull as Modern Doug; Neil Casey as Brian McConnachie

DIRECTOR: David Wain CINEMATOGRAPHY: Kevin Atkinson MUSIC: Craig Wedren EDITING: David Egan, Robert Nassau PRODUCTION: Abominable Pictures, Principato-Young Entertainment FILMED IN: United States of America

Box Office Performance

Theatrical box office data is not publicly available for A Futile and Stupid Gesture (2018). This may indicate a limited release, direct-to-streaming, or a release predating modern box office tracking.

Profitability Assessment

Insufficient publicly available data to assess profitability.

INDUSTRY IMPACT

PRODUCTION NOTES

▸ Production

Principal photography began in Los Angeles, California on April 14, 2016.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

No awards data currently available for this title.

CRITICAL RECEPTION

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of , based on reviews, with an average rating of . The site's consensus reads, "A Futile and Stupid Gesture entertainingly recreates the birth of an influential comedic movement, even if it struggles to cover its creative ground." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 55 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.

Writing for TheWrap, Todd Gilchrist opined, "Even if the casting choices in portraying some of iconic talents in Kenney's orbit are occasionally questionable a detail the film gleefully acknowledges there's something delightful about watching actors known for comedy now try to capture the sound or energy of the performers who inspired them." Ellin Stein of Slate stated, "There's a sense that the filmmakers have bitten off more than they can chew by trying to cram both the biography and the panoramic overview into one feature."