What is the budget of Captain Underpants The First Epic Movie?

"Captain Underpants The First Epic Movie," a family released in 2017, was directed by David Soren and stars Kevin Hart, Thomas Middleditch. The production budget was $38,000,000, placing it in the mid-budget range for family productions of its era.

Key Budget Allocation Categories

While specific budget breakdowns are not publicly available, typical cost drivers for a family production like this include:

Talent Salaries & Producing Deals: Established comedic talent can command $15 to 20 million per film, with top-tier stars earning even more through producing credits and backend deals.
Production & Location Filming: While comedies generally avoid the VFX costs of action films, location shooting in recognizable cities or exotic locales adds meaningful production expense.
Marketing & P&A (Prints & Advertising): Comedies rely heavily on marketing to build opening-weekend momentum.
Production: DreamWorks Pictures's and DreamWorks Animation's first interests in the film distribution rights to the Captain Underpants book series dates back to when the first book installment was published on September 1, 1997, but creator Dav Pilkey declined.

What were the major cost factors in Captain Underpants The First Epic Movie?

Several factors contributed to the overall production costs of "Captain Underpants The First Epic Movie."

Talent Salaries: Talent Salaries & Producing Deals is one of the primary cost drivers in family productions of this scale.
Production: Production & Location Filming is one of the primary cost drivers in family productions of this scale.
Marketing: Marketing & P&A (Prints & Advertising) is one of the primary cost drivers in family productions of this scale.

How Does Captain Underpants The First Epic Movie's Budget Compare to Similar Films?

At $38,000,000, Captain Underpants The First Epic Movie sits in the mid-budget range. Here is how it compares to productions with a similar budget:

Weapons (2025): Budget $38,000,000, Worldwide Gross $269,972,492
The Fast and the Furious (2001): Budget $38,000,000, Worldwide Gross $207,283,925
News of the World (2020): Budget $38,000,000, Worldwide Gross $12,700,000
Only the Brave (2017): Budget $38,000,000, Worldwide Gross $25,754,775
Why Him? (2016): Budget $38,000,000, Worldwide Gross $118,102,725

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

Captain Underpants The First Epic Movie Box Office Performance

"Captain Underpants The First Epic Movie" earned $125,427,681 worldwide at the box office. Against a production budget of $38,000,000, the film performed strongly at the box office.

A film typically needs to earn approximately twice its production budget to cover marketing and distribution costs. For "Captain Underpants The First Epic Movie," that break-even threshold was roughly $76,000,000. With worldwide earnings of $125,427,681, the film cleared that threshold comfortably.

Production Budget: $38,000,000
Worldwide Gross: $125,427,681
Net Return: $87,427,681
ROI: approximately 230.1%

At 230.1%, "Captain Underpants The First Epic Movie" earned roughly $3.3 for every $1 invested in production.

Critical Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of based on reviews and an average rating of . The site's critical consensus reads, "With a tidy plot, clean animation, and humor that fits its source material snugly, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie is entertainment that won't drive a wedge between family members." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 69 out of 100 based on 25 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.