Big Time Adolescence Budget

What Is the Budget of Big Time Adolescence (2020)?

Big Time Adolescence (2020), the coming-of-age comedy written and directed by Jason Orley in his feature debut, was produced for an undisclosed budget that has not been publicly released by American Highmount and the production partners. Industry observers familiar with independent Sundance-tier comedy tariffs in the 2018 to 2019 production window place the film in the range of $2,000,000 to $4,000,000, consistent with comparable Brooklyn-and-Syracuse-shot independent comedies of the same vintage. The film premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival in the U.S. Dramatic Competition before being acquired by Hulu for U.S. streaming rights and Neon for a limited U.S. theatrical engagement.

The acquisition deal terms were not disclosed. Hulu's streaming rights price for Sundance acquisitions of the period typically ranged from low-single-digit-millions to high-single-digit-millions depending on cast and competing bids, with the Big Time Adolescence acquisition reportedly closing in the lower portion of that range given the modest competitive bidding around the title.

Key Budget Allocation Categories

Big Time Adolescence's estimated independent-comedy tariff was distributed across the following core production areas:

• Above-the-Line Talent: Lead actor Pete Davidson (Saturday Night Live) anchored the cast as the slacker mentor Zeke, with newcomer Griffin Gluck (Locke & Key, American Vandal) as the 16-year-old protagonist Mo and Jon Cryer (Two and a Half Men) as Mo's father. Davidson and Cryer commanded the production's highest single-cast fees, while Gluck and the supporting ensemble were cast at independent-feature rates appropriate to the budget tier.
• Syracuse and Brooklyn Locations: Principal photography took place in upstate New York (Syracuse and surrounding communities) and Brooklyn, with the New York State film tax credit anchoring the production. The Syracuse base provided the suburban-house exteriors, high school environments, and small-college party settings that drive the film's setting.
• Production Design and Wardrobe: Production designer Robert Pyzocha and costume designer Rebecca Hofherr dressed the late-2010s suburban Northeast specifically, with Zeke's slacker tattoo-and-graphic-tee aesthetic, Mo's bar-mitzvah-to-high-school progression, and a multi-stage party-scene visual progression all built within the indie-budget envelope.
• Cinematography and Lighting: Cinematographer Andrew Huebscher shot the film in a warm, naturalistic palette dominated by handheld coverage and practical interior lighting, a deliberate stylistic choice that kept production lighting overhead manageable across the multi-location schedule.
• Score and Soundtrack: The score by James Wallace blended indie-rock-leaning needle drops with original cues. Independent comedy music budgets at this tier typically allocate substantial line-item to song licensing, particularly for the party sequences and house-music montages that anchor the social-event beats.
• Post-Production and Distribution Prep: Post took place at New York-area facilities through 2018 and early 2019, with delivery to the 2019 Sundance Film Festival as the project's premiere venue. The Hulu and Neon distribution deals were finalized at and immediately after the festival, with Hulu launching the film globally on March 13, 2020 in the days that the COVID-19 pandemic began closing theaters.

How Does Big Time Adolescence's Budget Compare to Similar Films?

At an estimated independent-comedy tariff in the low single-digit millions, Big Time Adolescence sits in the company of other Sundance-acquisition and Hulu-streaming-original comedies released in the same broader period:

• The King of Staten Island (2020): Budget approximately $35,000,000 | Worldwide $19,000,000. Judd Apatow's Pete Davidson semi-autobiographical comedy released three months after Big Time Adolescence operated at roughly ten times the tariff and was released via VOD by Universal during the early-pandemic theater closures.
• Booksmart (2019): Budget approximately $6,000,000 | Worldwide $25,000,000. Olivia Wilde's directorial debut, also a Sundance-tier 2019 premiere, operated at roughly twice Big Time Adolescence's estimated tariff and received a wider theatrical release via Annapurna Pictures.
• Eighth Grade (2018): Budget approximately $2,000,000 | Worldwide $14,300,000. Bo Burnham's coming-of-age comedy released by A24 a year before Big Time Adolescence operated at a comparable tariff and offers the closest direct release-window comparison for independent age-of-adolescence comedies.
• The Spy Who Dumped Me (2018): Budget approximately $40,000,000 | Worldwide $75,400,000. The Susanna Fogel comedy released by Lionsgate provides a higher-tariff studio comparison for the demographic Big Time Adolescence pursued via streaming.
• Palm Springs (2020): Budget approximately $5,000,000 | Worldwide $4,800,000 (theatrical only) + Hulu acquisition $17,500,000. Max Barbakow's 2020 Sundance comedy was acquired by Hulu and Neon together for a record-setting $17,500,000-and-69-cents in the most expensive Sundance acquisition of the festival, illustrating the upper ceiling for Hulu-streaming-acquisition deals.

Big Time Adolescence Box Office Performance

Big Time Adolescence opened in a limited U.S. theatrical engagement on March 13, 2020 via Neon, in 12 theaters with a cumulative opening-weekend gross of approximately $43,000. The theatrical release coincided with the first week of widespread COVID-19 theater closures across the United States, which effectively foreclosed any plan for a wider theatrical expansion. The film cumulative-grossed approximately $52,000 across its abbreviated U.S. theatrical run, with the limited international theatrical engagement adding negligible additional gross.

The film's primary commercial outcome was via the Hulu streaming acquisition, which launched globally on the same day (March 13, 2020) and provided Hulu with a high-profile Pete Davidson-led original during the early pandemic streaming surge.

• Production Budget: undisclosed (estimated $2,000,000 to $4,000,000)
• Estimated Prints & Advertising (P&A): approximately $500,000 to $1,500,000 (limited theatrical and Hulu platform marketing)
• Total Estimated Investment: approximately $2,500,000 to $5,500,000 (theatrical) plus Hulu acquisition
• Worldwide Gross: approximately $52,000 theatrical only
• Net Return: recovered via Hulu acquisition fee; theatrical window net negligible due to pandemic closures
• ROI: theatrical-window negative; total return positive via Hulu acquisition

Big Time Adolescence returned negligible theatrical revenue per dollar invested because of the timing accident of opening on March 13, 2020. The Hulu acquisition fee, paid up front at the festival, provided the primary recoupment vehicle and was widely understood within the trade as the project's commercial success measure rather than the theatrical engagement.

Within Hulu's broader 2020 original-acquisition slate, Big Time Adolescence was treated as a successful festival-acquisition that helped anchor the streamer's early-pandemic comedy programming, with subsequent engagement on the platform driven by Pete Davidson's Saturday Night Live visibility and the King of Staten Island launch three months later.

Big Time Adolescence Production History

Development on Big Time Adolescence began in 2017 at American Highmount, with writer-director Jason Orley developing the screenplay from his own experiences growing up in suburban Michigan. Orley had previously worked in television writers' rooms and on short films before pitching the feature, which drew on a half-mentor, half-bad-influence relationship between a 16-year-old and a 23-year-old college dropout. Producers John Finemore, John Hodges, and Alex Saks attached, and Pete Davidson, then in his late-20s Saturday Night Live tenure, signed on as the lead in mid-2018.

Principal photography ran from late 2018 into early 2019 in upstate New York and Brooklyn, with the production capturing the New York State film tax credit. The Syracuse-area base provided the suburban-house exteriors, high school environments, and small-college party settings that drive the film's setting. The compact 25-day shoot schedule was structured around Davidson's SNL availability, with the production filming across Saturday Night Live hiatus windows.

Casting Griffin Gluck as Mo opposite Pete Davidson's Zeke anchored the project's on-screen chemistry. Gluck had previously appeared in Locke & Key and American Vandal and brought the wide-eyed, slightly-too-eager-to-grow-up energy the role required. Jon Cryer joined as Mo's exasperated father, with Sydney Sweeney (then pre-Euphoria) in a small early role as a high-school love interest, and Machine Gun Kelly in a supporting role as one of Zeke's friends.

Post-production took place at New York-area facilities through 2019, with delivery to the 2019 Sundance Film Festival as the project's premiere venue. The film premiered in the U.S. Dramatic Competition on January 28, 2019 and was acquired by Hulu for U.S. streaming rights and Neon for a limited U.S. theatrical engagement within days of the screening. The release was scheduled for March 13, 2020, a date that arrived in the same week that the COVID-19 pandemic forced widespread U.S. theater closures.

Awards and Recognition

Big Time Adolescence received limited awards recognition. The film premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival in the U.S. Dramatic Competition but did not win a festival prize. It received a single Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best First Feature in 2020, ultimately losing to Olivia Wilde's Booksmart in the same category. The film also did not register at the major industry ceremonies including the Critics Choice, Gotham, or Film Independent Spirit award cycles beyond the First Feature nomination.

Pete Davidson received continued visibility on the strength of the lead performance, and writer-director Jason Orley's Sundance premiere helped anchor his subsequent career, which led to the Apple TV+ comedy Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret and Pete Davidson's Hulu series Bupkis. The pandemic-coincident release window prevented the film from generating the festival-and-trade-press momentum that comparable Sundance comedies of the same vintage built across spring 2020.

Critical Reception

Big Time Adolescence received broadly positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating in the high 70% range based on approximately 70 published reviews, with a critical consensus that praised Pete Davidson's lead performance as the slacker mentor Zeke and director Jason Orley's confident handling of the bittersweet tonal shift across the film's back half. On Metacritic, the film scored 65 out of 100, indicating generally favorable reviews.

Praise centered on Davidson's deceptively textured comedic performance, Griffin Gluck's grounded counter-performance as Mo, and the screenplay's willingness to let the central friendship be both genuine and toxic without collapsing into either pure comedy or pure cautionary tale. Variety's Owen Gleiberman called the film "a comedy that knows exactly how much its central relationship hurts," while The Hollywood Reporter's John DeFore wrote that Davidson "finds notes of regret and self-awareness the SNL persona had only briefly hinted at."

Detractors objected to the somewhat conventional coming-of-age structure, the limited screen time for Mo's mother and high-school love-interest characters, and the abrupt third-act consequence-scene that pivots the film from comedy to drama without fully earning the shift. The broadly positive critical reception was effectively erased from the wider conversation by the timing of the March 13, 2020 pandemic release, which arrived in the same news cycle as widespread theater closures and the start of the first federal stay-at-home guidance.