A Ghost Story Budget

What is the budget of A Ghost Story?

"A Ghost Story," a drama released in 2017, was directed by David Lowery and stars Casey Affleck, Rooney Mara. The production budget was $100,000, placing it in the micro-budget range for drama productions of its era.

Key Budget Allocation Categories

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

• Above-the-Line Talent: Drama films live or die on the strength of their performances.
• Location Filming & Period Production Design: Authentic locations , whether contemporary or historical , require scouting, permits, travel, lodging, and often significant dressing to match the story's time period.
• Post-Production, Color Grading & Score: The editorial process for dramas is typically longer than genre films, with careful attention to pacing and tone.
• Development: David Lowery had wanted to make a film featuring a man in a rudimentary ghost costume "for a while", telling Comingsoon.net: "I just loved that image.

What were the major cost factors in A Ghost Story?

Several factors contributed to the overall production costs of "A Ghost Story."

• Above-the-Line Talent: Above-the-Line Talent is one of the primary cost drivers in drama productions of this scale.
• Location Filming: Location Filming & Period Production Design is one of the primary cost drivers in drama productions of this scale.
• Post-Production: Post-Production, Color Grading & Score is one of the primary cost drivers in drama productions of this scale.

How Does A Ghost Story's Budget Compare to Similar Films?

At $100,000, A Ghost Story sits in the micro-budget range. Here is how it compares to productions with a similar budget:

• Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey (2023): Budget $100,000 , Gross $7,717,044
• Host (2020): Budget $100,000, Worldwide Gross $443,807
• The Open House (2018): Budget $100,000
• Punishment Park (1971): Budget $95,000
• Taste of Cherry (1997): Budget $120,000, Worldwide Gross $10,923

The median budget for wide-release drama films in the 2010s ranges from $30 to 80M for mid-budget to $150M+ for tentpoles.

A Ghost Story Box Office Performance

"A Ghost Story" earned $1,929,659 worldwide at the box office. Against a production budget of $100,000, 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 "A Ghost Story," that break-even threshold was roughly $200,000. With worldwide earnings of $1,929,659, the film cleared that threshold comfortably.

• Production Budget: $100,000
• Worldwide Gross: $1,929,659
• Net Return: $1,829,659
• ROI: approximately 1829.7%

At 1829.7%, "A Ghost Story" earned roughly $19.3 for every $1 invested in production.

A Ghost Story Production History

David Lowery had wanted to make a film featuring a man in a rudimentary ghost costume "for a while", telling Comingsoon.net: "I just loved that image. I love taking something that is understood to be funny or charming or sweet or naive and instilling it with some degree of gravity." When he and his wife got in an argument about moving back to Texas, he began to write down the argument "thinking about my own attachment to physical spaces." After he thought to combine this with the idea about the ghost costume, he came up with the basic concept for the movie fairly quickly The film's atypical 1.33:1 aspect ratio was chosen by Lowery partially because he thought it was thematically appropriate: "It’s about someone basically trapped in a box for eternity, and I felt the claustrophobia of that situation could be amplified by the boxiness of the aspect ratio." The ghost costume that was ultimately designed for the film ended up being more complicated than Lowery had anticipated. At first, the filmmakers attempted to simply use a normal bed sheet, but they found that even a king-sized sheet does not fully cover an adult male.

Principal photography began in June 2016. The majority of the film takes place within a single house, which was chosen by Lowery because it closely resembled the first house he lived in with his wife. As the house was about to be demolished, the film crew was allowed to use it for free.

Daniel Hart composed the score for the film, as he had for all of Lowery's previous features and one short film. A soundtrack of the score was released by Milan Records on July 7, 2017.