A Taxi Driver Budget

What is the budget of A Taxi Driver?

"A Taxi Driver," an action released in 2017, was directed by Jang Hoon and stars Song Kang-ho, Thomas Kretschmann. The production budget was $12,820,005, placing it in the low-budget 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.
• Production: Filming began on 5 June 2016, and ended on 24 October 2016.

What were the major cost factors in A Taxi Driver?

Several factors contributed to the overall production costs of "A Taxi Driver."

• 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 A Taxi Driver's Budget Compare to Similar Films?

At $12,820,005, A Taxi Driver sits in the low-budget range. Here is how it compares to productions with a similar budget:

• Miss Sloane (2016): Budget $13,000,000, Worldwide Gross $9,101,546
• RoboCop (1987): Budget $13,000,000, Worldwide Gross $53,424,681
• The Godfather Part II (1974): Budget $13,000,000, Worldwide Gross $102,600,000
• The Holdovers (2023): Budget $13,000,000, Worldwide Gross $42,513,270
• In the Name of the Father (1993): Budget $13,000,000, Worldwide Gross $65,796,862

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

A Taxi Driver Box Office Performance

"A Taxi Driver" earned $1,527,829 domestically and $81,927,980 worldwide at the box office. Against a production budget of $12,820,005, 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 Taxi Driver," that break-even threshold was roughly $25,640,010. With worldwide earnings of $81,927,980, the film cleared that threshold comfortably.

• Production Budget: $12,820,005
• Worldwide Gross: $81,927,980
• Net Return: $69,107,975
• ROI: approximately 539.1%

At 539.1%, "A Taxi Driver" earned roughly $6.39 for every $1 invested in production.

Awards and Recognition

25 wins & 32 nominations total

Critical Reception

A Taxi Driver received positive reviews upon its release. The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 97% based on 30 reviews, with an average rating of 7.3/10. The website's critical consensus reads "A Taxi Driver brings a ground-level perspective and a refreshingly light touch to a fact-based story with sobering implications." On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating based on reviews, the film has a score of 69 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".