All That Jazz

RDrama

Budget$12M

Domestic Box Office$37.8M

Worldwide Box Office$37.8M

Synopsis

Joe Gideon is a Broadway director, choreographer and filmmaker, he in the process of casting the chorus and staging the dance numbers for his latest Broadway show, starring his ex-wife Audrey Paris in what is largely a vanity project for her in playing a role several years younger than her real age, and editing a film he directed on the life of stand-up comic Davis Newman. Joe's professional and personal lives are intertwined, he a chronic philanderer, having slept with and had relationships with a series of dancers in his shows, Victoria Porter, who he hired for the current show despite she not being the best dancer, in the former category, and Kate Jagger, his current girlfriend, in the latter category. That philandering has led to relationship problems, with Audrey during their marriage, and potentially now with Kate who wants a committed relationship with Joe largely in not wanting the alternative of entering the dating world again. Joe also lives a hard and fast life, he chain smoking, drinking heavily, listening to hard driving classical music and popping uppers to keep going. In addition to pressures from investors and meeting film deadlines above and beyond his own self-induced hard life, he is teetering on the brink physically and emotionally. With Kate, Audrey, and his and Audrey's teenage daughter Michelle looking over him as best they can, Joe flirts with "Angelique" in the process, he potentially succumbing to her if he doesn't listen to them or what his body is telling him.

Production Budget Analysis

What was the production budget for All That Jazz?

Directed by Bob Fosse, with Roy Scheider, Jessica Lange, Ann Reinking leading the cast, All That Jazz was produced by Columbia Pictures with a confirmed budget of $12,000,000, placing it in the low-budget category for drama films.

At $12,000,000, All That Jazz was produced on a modest budget. Lower-budget films benefit from reduced break-even thresholds, with profitability achievable at approximately $30,000,000.

Budget Comparison — Similar Productions

• Goon (2012): Budget $12,000,000 | Gross $6,985,158 → ROI: -42% • Jobs (2013): Budget $12,000,000 | Gross $42,100,000 → ROI: 251% • 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968): Budget $12,000,000 | Gross $71,923,560 → ROI: 499% • Wolfwalkers (2020): Budget $12,000,000 | Gross $1,310,720 → ROI: -89% • Past Lives (2023): Budget $12,000,000 | Gross $28,126,646 → ROI: 134%

Key Budget Allocation Categories

▸ Above-the-Line Talent Drama films live or die on the strength of their performances. Securing award-caliber actors and experienced directors represents the single largest budget line item, often consuming 30–40% of the total production budget.

▸ 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. Period dramas add the cost of era-accurate props, vehicles, and set decoration.

▸ Post-Production, Color Grading & Score The editorial process for dramas is typically longer than genre films, with careful attention to pacing and tone. Color grading, a nuanced musical score, and detailed sound mixing are critical to achieving the emotional resonance that defines the genre.

Key Production Personnel

CAST: Roy Scheider, Jessica Lange, Ann Reinking, Leland Palmer, Cliff Gorman Key roles: Roy Scheider as Joe Gideon; Jessica Lange as Angelique; Ann Reinking as Kate Jagger; Leland Palmer as Audrey Paris

DIRECTOR: Bob Fosse CINEMATOGRAPHY: Giuseppe Rotunno MUSIC: Ralph Burns EDITING: Alan Heim PRODUCTION: Columbia Pictures, 20th Century Fox FILMED IN: United States of America

Box Office Performance

All That Jazz earned $37,823,676 domestically, for a worldwide total of $37,823,676. The film skewed heavily domestic (100%), suggesting strong North American appeal.

Break-Even Analysis

Using the industry-standard 2.5x multiplier (P&A + exhibitor shares of 40–50% + distribution fees), All That Jazz needed approximately $30,000,000 to break even. The film surpassed this threshold by $7,823,676.

Return on Investment (ROI)

Revenue: $37,823,676 Budget: $12,000,000 Net: $25,823,676 ROI: 215.2%

Profitability Assessment

VERDICT: Profitable

All That Jazz delivered a solid return, earning $37,823,676 worldwide on a $12,000,000 budget (215% ROI). Combined with ancillary revenue, the film was a financial positive for Columbia Pictures.

INDUSTRY IMPACT

The outsized success of All That Jazz likely influenced studio greenlight decisions for similar drama projects.

The final dance sequence of All That Jazz is depicted in FX's Fosse/Verdon starring Sam Rockwell as Bob Fosse. The series' executive producer and Broadway star Lin-Manuel Miranda played the dual role of Joe Gideon/Roy Scheider. The "Get Happy" dream sequence musical number in the season 7 House episode "Bombshells" was also inspired by this dance sequence.

The film is referenced in the Better Call Saul first-season episode, "Mijo". During the episode, there is a montage depicting the daily routine of protagonist Jimmy McGill, which includes looking at himself in the mirror and saying "It's showtime, folks!", mirroring the words and gesture part of All That Jazz protagonist Joe Gideon's own routine; McGill acknowledges that the words are "from a movie" when a bystander sees him do the routine.

Season 3 Episode 5 of GLOW, "Freaky Tuesday", opens with the same Vivaldi concerto music while the character Tammé is shown struggling, with the help of pills and wine and hot showers, to wake up every morning and tamp down her back pain while continuing to perform as a wrestler each night.

Season 3 Episode 10 of Get a Life, "Zoo Animals on Wheels", features a rehearsal montage set to "On Broadway". During this sequence, Chris Peterson (Chris Elliott) mimics Joe Gideon's cigarette smoking and use of Visine before saying, "It's showtime, folks!" to himself in his dressing room mirror.

PRODUCTION NOTES

▸ Production

While trying to edit Lenny and choreograph Chicago in 1974, Fosse suffered a massive heart attack and underwent open heart surgery. After recovering, Fosse became interested in the subject of life and death and hospital behavior. Alongside his friend Robert Alan Aurthur, they set out to make a film adaption of Ending by Hilma Wolitzer which had similar themes of death and marital problems. However, after completing the screenplay, Fosse decided against making it a film as he found the material too depressing and felt he wasn't strong enough to stick with it for over a year. Still wanting to stick with the subject matter of death and wanting to use what he felt were his best tools of song and dance, he instead decided to make a film based on his own experiences with making Lenny and Chicago. The story's structure closely mirrors Fosse's own health issues at the time and is often compared to Federico Fellini's 8½, another thinly veiled autobiographical film with fantastical elements.

The part of Audrey Paris—Joe's ex-wife and continuing muse, played by Leland Palmer—closely reflects that of Fosse's wife, the dancer and actress Gwen Verdon, who continued to work with him on projects including Chicago and All That Jazz itself.

Gideon's rough handling of chorus girl Victoria Porter closely resembles Bob Fosse's own treatment of Jennifer Nairn-Smith during rehearsals for Pippin.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Summary: Won 4 Oscars. 12 wins & 14 nominations total

Awards Won: ★ Academy Award for Best Production Design — Edward Stewart (52nd Academy Awards) ★ Academy Award for Best Production Design — Gary J. Brink (52nd Academy Awards) ★ Academy Award for Best Production Design — Philip Rosenberg (52nd Academy Awards) ★ Academy Award for Best Production Design — Tony Walton (52nd Academy Awards) ★ Academy Award for Best Original Song Score — Ralph Burns (52nd Academy Awards) ★ Academy Award for Best Film Editing — Alan Heim (52nd Academy Awards) ★ Palme d'Or ★ Academy Award for Best Costume Design — Albert Wolsky (52nd Academy Awards)

Nominations: ○ Academy Award for Best Costume Design (52nd Academy Awards) ○ Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Screenplay (52nd Academy Awards) ○ Academy Award for Best Cinematography (52nd Academy Awards) ○ Academy Award for Best Picture (52nd Academy Awards) ○ Academy Award for Best Actor (52nd Academy Awards) ○ Academy Award for Best Original Song Score (52nd Academy Awards) ○ Academy Award for Best Director (52nd Academy Awards) ○ Academy Award for Best Production Design (52nd Academy Awards) ○ Academy Award for Best Film Editing (52nd Academy Awards)

Additional Recognition: ! Year ! Award ! Category ! Nominee(s) ! Result

CRITICAL RECEPTION

In his review in The New York Times, Vincent Canby called the film "an uproarious display of brilliance, nerve, dance, maudlin confessions, inside jokes and, especially, ego" and "an essentially funny movie that seeks to operate on too many levels at the same time... some of it makes you wince, but a lot of it is great fun... A key to the success of the production is the performance of Roy Scheider as Joe Gideon... With an actor of less weight and intensity, All That Jazz might have evaporated as we watched it. Mr. Scheider's is a presence to reckon with."

Variety described it as "a self-important, egomaniacal, wonderfully choreographed, often compelling film" and added, "Roy Scheider gives a superb performance as Gideon, creating a character filled with nervous energy... The film's major flaw lies in its lack of real explanation of what, beyond ego, really motivates [him]."

Gene Siskel praised the film on Sneak Previews, finding it fresh and entertaining describing it as "an obituary of a creative man who's afraid his work just might be trivial." His colleague Roger Ebert gave the film a mixed review, praising Fosse's choreography though criticizing the story, finding it discombobulated and self-indulgent. He also found it inferior to 8½, stating, "I think it's kind of ironic Bob Fosse makes a film about his own life and it turns out to be Fellini's life." In 2003, Ebert said he had changed his opinion, and praised the film stating that he was "wrong" about it at the time and felt it was unfair of him to compare it to Fellini.

Stanley Kauffmann of The New Republic wrote 'Except for one brief flashback, it's a latter-day self destructive agon in which the protagonist is beginning a complex Broadway show,'.

TV Guide said, "The dancing is frenzied, the dialogue piercing, the photography superb, and the acting first-rate, with non-showman Scheider an illustrious example of casting against type . . . All That Jazz is great-looking but not easy to watch.