Beasts of No Nation Budget

What is the budget of Beasts of No Nation?

"Beasts of No Nation," a drama released in 2015, was directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga and stars Abraham Attah, Idris Elba. The production budget was $6,000,000, placing it in the low-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: Cary Joji Fukunaga directed his own script, after having worked on it for seven years.

What were the major cost factors in Beasts of No Nation?

Several factors contributed to the overall production costs of "Beasts of No Nation."

• 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 Beasts of No Nation's Budget Compare to Similar Films?

At $6,000,000, Beasts of No Nation sits in the low-budget range. Here is how it compares to productions with a similar budget:

• The Godfather (1972): Budget $6,000,000, Worldwide Gross $245,066,411
• Chinatown (1974): Budget $6,000,000, Worldwide Gross $30,000,000
• The Father (2020): Budget $6,000,000, Worldwide Gross $21,029,340
• I Swear (2025): Budget $6,000,000, Worldwide Gross $8,682,832
• Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (2022): Budget $6,000,000, Worldwide Gross $6,909,209

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

Beasts of No Nation Box Office Performance

"Beasts of No Nation" earned $9,077,700 worldwide at the box office. Against a production budget of $6,000,000, the film showed modest profitability in theatrical release.

A film typically needs to earn approximately twice its production budget to cover marketing and distribution costs. For "Beasts of No Nation," that break-even threshold was roughly $12,000,000. With worldwide earnings of $9,077,700, the film fell short of that threshold but recouped its production costs in theatrical release.

• Production Budget: $6,000,000
• Worldwide Gross: $9,077,700
• Net Return: $3,077,700
• ROI: approximately 51.3%

At 51.3%, "Beasts of No Nation" returned its production investment but margin was tight after marketing and distribution costs.

Critical Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 91% based on 150 reviews, with an average rating of 7.90/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Beasts of No Nation finds writer-director Cary Fukunaga working with a talented cast to offer a sobering, uncompromising, yet still somehow hopeful picture of war's human cost." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 79 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "generally favourable" reviews.