Casino

Production Budget Analysis

What was the production budget for Casino?

Directed by Martin Scorsese, with Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, Joe Pesci leading the cast, Casino was produced by Universal Pictures with a confirmed budget of $50,000,000, placing it in the mid-budget category for crime films.

With a $50,000,000 budget, Casino sits in the mid-range of studio releases. Marketing costs for a wide release at this level typically add $30–60 million, putting the break-even point near $125,000,000.

Budget Comparison — Similar Productions

• Angela's Ashes (1999): Budget $50,000,000 | Gross $13,042,112 → ROI: -74% • Dredd (2012): Budget $50,000,000 | Gross $41,037,742 → ROI: -18% • Lord of War (2005): Budget $50,000,000 | Gross $72,600,000 → ROI: 45% • Shall We Dance? (2004): Budget $50,000,000 | Gross $170,128,460 → ROI: 240% • The Iron Giant (1999): Budget $50,000,000 | Gross $23,300,000 → ROI: -53%

Key Budget Allocation Categories

▸ Talent & Director Compensation Thrillers depend on compelling lead performances to sustain tension, making cast compensation a primary budget concern. Directors with proven thriller credentials command premium fees.

▸ Cinematography & Location Photography Thriller aesthetics demand specific visual languages — surveillance-style photography, claustrophobic framing, or expansive location work across multiple cities or countries.

▸ Editorial & Sound Post-Production Precision editing — controlling information flow, building suspense through pacing, and orchestrating reveals — requires extended post-production schedules.

Key Production Personnel

CAST: Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, Joe Pesci, James Woods, Don Rickles Key roles: Robert De Niro as Sam "Ace" Rothstein; Sharon Stone as Ginger McKenna; Joe Pesci as Nicky Santoro; James Woods as Lester Diamond

DIRECTOR: Martin Scorsese CINEMATOGRAPHY: Robert Richardson MUSIC: Roy Hawkins EDITING: Thelma Schoonmaker PRODUCTION: Universal Pictures, Syalis DA, Légende Films, Cappa/De Fina Productions FILMED IN: France, United States of America

Box Office Performance

Casino earned $42,512,375 domestically and $73,600,000 internationally, for a worldwide total of $116,112,375. Revenue was split 37% domestic / 63% international.

Break-Even Analysis

Using the industry-standard 2.5x multiplier (P&A + exhibitor shares of 40–50% + distribution fees), Casino needed approximately $125,000,000 to break even. The film fell $8,887,625 short in theatrical revenue. Ancillary streams (home media, streaming, TV) may have bridged the gap.

Return on Investment (ROI)

Revenue: $116,112,375 Budget: $50,000,000 Net: $66,112,375 ROI: 132.2%

Profitability Assessment

VERDICT: Profitable

Casino delivered a solid return, earning $116,112,375 worldwide on a $50,000,000 budget (132% ROI). Combined with ancillary revenue, the film was a financial positive for Universal Pictures.

INDUSTRY IMPACT

PRODUCTION NOTES

▸ Development

Casino is based on New York crime reporter Nicholas Pileggi's book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas. The research for Casino began when Pileggi read a 1980 report from the Las Vegas Sun about a domestic argument between Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, a casino figure, and his wife Geri McGee, a former topless dancer. This gave him an idea to focus on a new book about the true story of mob infringement in Las Vegas during the 1970s, when filming of Goodfellas (whose screenplay he co-wrote with Scorsese) was coming to an end. The fictional Tangiers resort reflected the story of the Stardust Resort and Casino, which had been bought by Argent Corporation in 1974 using loans from the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund. Argent was owned by Allen Glick, but the casino was believed to be controlled by various organized crime families from the Midwest. Over the next six years, Argent Corporation siphoned off between $7 and $15 million using rigged scales. This skimming operation, when uncovered by the FBI, was the largest ever exposed. A number of organized crime figures were convicted as a result of the skimming.

Nicholas Pileggi contacted Martin Scorsese about taking the lead of the project, which became known as Casino. Scorsese expressed interest, calling this an "idea of success, no limits." Pileggi was keen to release the book and then concentrate on a film adaptation, but Scorsese encouraged him to "reverse the order."

Scorsese and Pileggi collaborated on the script for five months, towards the end of 1994. Real-life characters were reshaped, such as Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, Geri McGee, Anthony Spilotro, Spilotro's brother Michael, Spilotro's right-hand man Frank Cullotta, and mob boss Joseph Aiuppa. Some characters were combined, and parts of the story were set in Kansas City instead of Chicago.

▸ Filming & Locations

Filming happened at night in the Riviera casino in Las Vegas, with the nearby defunct Landmark Hotel as the entrance, to replicate the fictional Tangiers. According to Barbara De Fina, the film's producer, there was no reason to construct a set if they could simply film around an actual casino. The opening scene, with Sam's car exploding, was shot three times; the third take was used for the film. During the table arguing scene, De Niro called Stone a "good actress". Saul Bass designed the title sequence, which was his last work. The total cost for the titles was $11,316, not including the fees for the Basses. Bass justified the cost to De Fina by noting that creating a continuous explosion from a second shot of an explosion demanded a lot of experimentation, as did getting the flight path of the body exactly right. When first submitted to the MPAA, the film received an NC-17 rating due to its depictions of violence. Several edits were made in order to reduce the rating to R.

The film was shot in the common top Super 35 format as it allowed the picture to be reformatted for television broadcast. Scorsese said, "I wish I could just shoot straight anamorphic, but the lenses we had in this situation were actually much more diversified. To a certain extent, shooting a film this way can make certain technical aspects more difficult, but to me, anything is better than panning and scanning on TV. We can re-frame just about every shot we did on this picture for video." Cinematographer Robert Richardson, on the other hand, was not impressed with the quality of the release prints, and did not touch the format again until Kill Bill: Volume 1, at which point the digital intermediate process was available.

▸ Music & Score

Disc 1 # "Contempt – Theme De Camille" by Georges Delerue (2:32) # "Angelina/Zooma, Zooma Medley" by Louis Prima (4:16) # "Hoochie Coochie Man" by Muddy Waters (2:50) # "I'll Take You There" by The Staple Singers (4:29) # "Nights in White Satin" by The Moody Blues (4:27) # "How High the Moon" by Les Paul & Mary Ford (2:08) # "Hurt" by Timi Yuro (2:27) # "Ain't Got No Home" by Clarence 'Frogman' Henry (2:22) # "Without You" by Nilsson (3:20) # "Love Is the Drug" by Roxy Music (4:08) # "I'm Sorry" by Brenda Lee (2:38) # "Go Your Own Way" by Fleetwood Mac (3:36) # "The Thrill Is Gone" by B.B. King (5:26) # "Love Is Strange" by Mickey & Sylvia (2:54) # "The 'In' Crowd" by Ramsey Lewis (5:50) # "Stardust" by Hoagy Carmichael (3:47)

Disc 2 # "Walk on the Wild Side" by Jimmy Smith (5:56) # "Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)" by Otis Redding (2:42) # "I Ain't Superstitious" by Jeff Beck Group (4:53) # "The Glory of Love" by The Velvetones (2:51) # "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by Devo (2:39) # "What a Diff'rence a Day Made" by Dinah Washington (2:29) # "Working in the Coal Mine" by Lee Dorsey (2:45) # "House of the Rising Sun" by Eric Burdon (4:38) # "Those Were the Days" by Cream (2:55) # "Who Can I Turn To?" by Tony Bennett (2:55) # "Slippin' and Slidin'" by Little Richard (2:42) # "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You" by Dean Martin (2:13) # "Compared to What" (Live) by Les McCann & Eddie Harris (8:35) # "Basin Street Blues/When It's Sleepy Time Down South" by Louis Prima (4:12) # "St. Matthew Passion (Wir setzen uns mit Tränen nieder)" by Johann Sebastian Bach (Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Georg Solti) (6:26)

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Summary: Nominated for 1 Oscar. 4 wins & 11 nominations total

Nominations: ○ Academy Award for Best Actress (68th Academy Awards)

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CRITICAL RECEPTION

Upon its release, Casino received mostly positive reviews from critics, although their praise was more muted than it had been for the thematically similar Goodfellas, released only five years earlier, with some reviewers criticizing Scorsese for retreading familiar territory. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 78% based on 74 reviews, with an average rating of 7.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Impressive ambition and bravura performances from an outstanding cast help Casino pay off in spite of a familiar narrative that may strike some viewers as a safe bet for director Martin Scorsese." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 73 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B−" on scale of A+ to F.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four stars, stating, "Martin Scorsese's fascinating new film Casino knows a lot about the Mafia's relationship with Las Vegas. Like The Godfather it makes us feel like eavesdroppers in a secret place." He added, "Unlike his other Mafia movies (Mean Streets and Goodfellas), Scorsese's Casino is as concerned with history as with plot and character." Janet Maslin of The New York Times noted that the film's journalistic approach resulted in "no conveniently sharp focus, a plot built like a centipede and characters with lives too messy to form conventional dramatic arcs." Nevertheless, she praised Sharon Stone, writing that she "will be nobody's idea of Hollywood fluff after this spectacular, emblematic performance."

Todd McCarthy of Variety felt the film "possesses a stylistic boldness and verisimilitude that is virtually matchless". He praised De Niro's performance as "outstanding" and felt Stone was "simply a revelation here".