A Serious Man Budget

What is the budget of A Serious Man?

"A Serious Man," a comedy released in 2009, was directed by Ethan Coen, Joel Coen and stars Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind. The production budget was $7,000,000, placing it in the low-budget range for comedy productions of its era.

Key Budget Allocation Categories

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

• Talent Salaries & Producing Deals: Established comedic talent can command $15 to 20 million per film, with top-tier stars earning even more through producing credits and backend deals.
• 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.
• Production: Considerable attention was paid to the setting; it was important to the Coens to find a neighborhood of original-looking suburban rambler homes as they would have appeared in St.

What were the major cost factors in A Serious Man?

Several factors contributed to the overall production costs of "A Serious Man."

• Talent Salaries: Talent Salaries & Producing Deals is one of the primary cost drivers in comedy productions of this scale.
• Production: Production & Location Filming is one of the primary cost drivers in comedy productions of this scale.
• Marketing: Marketing & P&A (Prints & Advertising) is one of the primary cost drivers in comedy productions of this scale.

How Does A Serious Man's Budget Compare to Similar Films?

At $7,000,000, A Serious Man sits in the low-budget range. Here is how it compares to productions with a similar budget:

• Capote (2005): Budget $7,000,000, Worldwide Gross $49,327,405
• Norm of the North (2016): Budget $7,000,000, Worldwide Gross $17,062,499
• American Psycho (2000): Budget $7,000,000, Worldwide Gross $34,269,748
• Jaws (1975): Budget $7,000,000, Worldwide Gross $470,653,000
• High School Musical 2 (2007): Budget $7,000,000

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

A Serious Man Box Office Performance

"A Serious Man" earned $31,400,000 worldwide at the box office. Against a production budget of $7,000,000, 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 "A Serious Man," that break-even threshold was roughly $14,000,000. With worldwide earnings of $31,400,000, the film cleared that threshold comfortably.

• Production Budget: $7,000,000
• Worldwide Gross: $31,400,000
• Net Return: $24,400,000
• ROI: approximately 348.6%

At 348.6%, "A Serious Man" earned roughly $4.49 for every $1 invested in production.

A Serious Man Production History

All of the film's original music is by Carter Burwell, who also worked on every previous Coen brothers film except O Brother, Where Art Thou? The film also contains pieces of Yiddish music including "Dem Milner's Trern" by Mark Warshawsky and performed by Sidor Belarsky, which deals with the abuse and recurring evictions of Jews from Shtetlekh. The soundtrack also includes the following songs by popular 1960s artists:

Awards and Recognition

• National Board of Review: Top Ten Films

Critical Reception

A Serious Man received mostly positive reviews from critics, and holds an 89% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 227 reviews, with an average rating of 7.90/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Blending dark humor with profoundly personal themes, the Coen brothers deliver what might be their most mature,if not their best,film to date." The film also holds a score of 85 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on 38 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".