The electrifying 1973 tennis match between World number one Billie Jean King and ex-champ and serial hustler Bobby Riggs was billed as “The Battle of the Sexes,” and became the most watched televised sports event of all time. The match caught the zeitgeist and sparked a global conversation on gender equality, spurring on the feminist movement. Trapped in the media glare, King and Riggs were on opposites sides of a binary argument, but off-court each was fighting more personal and complex battles. With a supportive husband urging her to fight the Establishment for equal pay, the fiercely private King was also struggling to come to terms with her own sexuality, while Riggs gambled his legacy and reputation in a bid to relive the glories of his past. Together, Billie and Bobby served up a cultural spectacle that resonated far beyond the tennis courts and animated the discussions between men and women in bedrooms and boardrooms around the world.

What is the budget of Battle of the Sexes?

"Battle of the Sexes," a drama released in 2017, was directed by Valerie Faris, Jonathan Dayton and stars Emma Stone, Steve Carell. The production budget was $25,000,000, placing it in the mid-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.
Production: The project and its two leads were announced in April 2015.

What were the major cost factors in Battle of the Sexes?

Several factors contributed to the overall production costs of "Battle of the Sexes."

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 Battle of the Sexes's Budget Compare to Similar Films?

At $25,000,000, Battle of the Sexes sits in the mid-budget range. Here is how it compares to productions with a similar budget:

1408 (2007): Budget $25,000,000, Worldwide Gross $133,000,000
A Journal for Jordan (2021): Budget $25,000,000, Worldwide Gross $6,700,000
Abandon (2002): Budget $25,000,000, Worldwide Gross $10,719,357
All My Life (2020): Budget $25,000,000, Worldwide Gross $2,000,000
August Rush (2007): Budget $25,000,000, Worldwide Gross $66,122,026

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

Battle of the Sexes Box Office Performance

"Battle of the Sexes" earned $12,638,526 worldwide at the box office. Against a production budget of $25,000,000, the film faced challenges in theatrical release. Home video, streaming, and ancillary revenue may have contributed to its overall performance.

A film typically needs to earn approximately twice its production budget to cover marketing and distribution costs. For "Battle of the Sexes," that break-even threshold was roughly $50,000,000. With worldwide earnings of $12,638,526, the film did not reach break-even in theatrical release.

Production Budget: $25,000,000
Worldwide Gross: $12,638,526
Net Return: −$12,361,474
ROI: approximately -49.4%

At -49.4%, "Battle of the Sexes" did not recoup its production budget through theatrical release alone.

Awards and Recognition

3 wins & 24 nominations total

Critical Reception

On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 84% based on 316 reviews, with an average rating of 7.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Battle of the Sexes turns real-life events into a crowd-pleasing, well-acted dramedy that ably entertains while smartly serving up a volley of present-day parallels." Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 73 out of 100 based on 46 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.