Production Budget Analysis

What was the production budget for Bad Taste?

Directed by Peter Jackson, with Terry Potter, Pete O'Herne, Craig Smith leading the cast, Bad Taste was produced by WingNut Films with a confirmed budget of $150,000, placing it in the ultra-low-budget category for action films.

At $150,000, Bad Taste was produced on a lean budget. Lower-budget films benefit from reduced break-even thresholds, with profitability achievable at approximately $375,000.

Budget Comparison — Similar Productions

• The Seventh Seal (1957): Budget $150,000 | Gross $311,212 → ROI: 107% • Hundreds of Beavers (2024): Budget $150,000 | Gross $1,267,995 → ROI: 745% • Kaili Blues (2016): Budget $150,000 | Gross $646 → ROI: -100% • Chungking Express (1994): Budget $160,000 | Gross N/A • The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974): Budget $140,000 | Gross $30,922,680 → ROI: 21988%

Key Budget Allocation Categories

▸ 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. For large-scale productions, VFX alone can account for 20–30% of the total budget, with additional costs for stunt coordinators, rigging, and safety crews.

▸ Above-the-Line Talent (Cast & Director) A-list talent commands significant upfront fees plus backend participation. Lead actors in major action franchises typically earn $10–25 million per film, with directors often receiving comparable compensation packages tied to box office performance.

▸ 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.

Key Production Personnel

CAST: Terry Potter, Pete O'Herne, Craig Smith, Mike Minett, Peter Jackson Key roles: Terry Potter as Ozzy / 3rd Class Alien; Pete O'Herne as Barry / 3rd Class Alien; Craig Smith as Giles / 3rd Class Alien; Mike Minett as Frank / 3rd Class Alien

DIRECTOR: Peter Jackson CINEMATOGRAPHY: Peter Jackson MUSIC: Michelle Scullion EDITING: Jamie Selkirk, Peter Jackson PRODUCTION: WingNut Films, New Zealand Film Commission FILMED IN: New Zealand

Box Office Performance

Theatrical box office data is not publicly available for Bad Taste (1987). 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

During his acceptance speech at the 2004 Academy Awards, Jackson mentioned Bad Taste (along with Meet the Feebles), joking that it had been "wisely overlooked by the Academy."

In 2008, Empire ranked Bad Taste as the 416th greatest film of all time, based on opinions from readers and industry professionals.

PRODUCTION NOTES

▸ Production

Much of the film was shot in and around Jackson's home suburb of Pukerua Bay in northern Wellington, using a 25-year-old 16mm Bolex camera. Originally begun as a 20-minute short film called Roast of the Day,Bad Taste was shot primarily on weekends over the course of four years, at an initial cost of around $25,000. Toward the end of the shoot the New Zealand Film Commission invested around NZ$235,000 at the time (equivalent to US$ today) into the film to ensure its completion. Heavily influenced by special effects pioneer Tom Savini, Jackson incorporated many absurdly gory special effects.

Peter Jackson himself plays two acting roles. In one early scene halfway down a cliff, careful editing, utilising shots taken months apart, makes it possible for the two characters, Derek and the alien Robert (both played by Jackson), to fight one another.

Bad Taste begins Jackson's penchant for using the Morris Minor in his ‌in this film Giles drives a Morris Minor. Subsequently, every car in Meet the Feebles is a Morris Minor (including a limousine) and several are seen in Braindead.

A combination of blank firing firearms and homemade weapon props were used in the film. Most of the firearm props were made using recycled aluminium and wood. The actors also had to shake them to simulate the recoil. A flash and sound effect was added later during post production.

All the alien masks in the film were baked in Peter Jackson's mother's oven.

Kaihoro, the name of the town whose inhabitants are butchered, is a Māori word coined by Jackson and his crew early in the shooting of the film. It has two parts: "kai" which means food and "horo" which means town or village. Foodtown is also the name of a New Zealand chain of grocery stores.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

No awards data currently available for this title.

CRITICAL RECEPTION

Kim Newman of Empire gave the film three stars out of five, with praise being directed to the special effects. For AllMovie, Jason Buchanan wrote that Bad Taste was "amazingly resourceful," but that it moves at such a "hyperactive" pace that "it's nearly impossible to draw a breath, much less take a moment to laugh at the revoltingly hilarious exploits." In a much less positive review, Time Out summarised that although "the film had its moments," it was not a worthwhile watch.

The film holds a 73% approval rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 22 reviews with an average rating of 6.50/10. The site's consensus reads: "Peter Jackson's early low-budget shocker boasts a disgusting ‌aliens harvesting humans for fast ‌that gives the budding auteur plenty of room for gross-out visuals and absurd cleverness." On Metacritic, the film holds a score of 52 out of 100 based on reviews by 4 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews."