What is the budget of Contagion?

"Contagion," a drama released in 2011, was directed by Steven Soderbergh and stars Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon. The production budget was $60,000,000, placing it in the high-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.
Writing: Story development for Contagion coincided with Scott Z.

What were the major cost factors in Contagion?

Several factors contributed to the overall production costs of "Contagion."

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 Contagion's Budget Compare to Similar Films?

At $60,000,000, Contagion sits in the high-budget range. Here is how it compares to productions with a similar budget:

15 Minutes (2001): Budget $60,000,000, Worldwide Gross $56,359,980
Almost Famous (2000): Budget $60,000,000, Worldwide Gross $47,386,287
Analyze That (2002): Budget $60,000,000, Worldwide Gross $55,003,135
Antz (1998): Budget $60,000,000, Worldwide Gross $171,757,863
Cats & Dogs (2001): Budget $60,000,000, Worldwide Gross $200,687,492

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

Contagion Box Office Performance

"Contagion" earned $75,658,097 domestically and $137,551,594 worldwide at the box office. Against a production budget of $60,000,000, 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 "Contagion," that break-even threshold was roughly $120,000,000. With worldwide earnings of $137,551,594, the film cleared that threshold comfortably.

Production Budget: $60,000,000
Worldwide Gross: $137,551,594
Net Return: $77,551,594
ROI: approximately 129.3%

At 129.3%, "Contagion" earned roughly $2.29 for every $1 invested in production.

Contagion Production History

Story development for Contagion coincided with Scott Z. Burns' collaboration with Steven Soderbergh in The Informant! (2009). The duo had initially planned to create a biographical film on Leni Riefenstahl, a trailblazer in German cinema during the 1930s and a figure in the rise of the Nazi Party.

In addition to directing, Soderbergh was the cinematographer of Contagion. Since he hoped for the premise to be authentic and "as realistic as possible", Soderbergh opted not to film in the studio. "There's, to me, nothing more satisfying occasionally than making someplace look like someplace else on film and having nobody know the difference." For choosing cities, Soderbergh felt that they couldn't "go anywhere where one of our characters hasn't been", since he wanted to portray an "epic", yet "intimate" scenario.

Cliff Martinez composed the film's soundtrack, which was his first big-screen score for Soderbergh since Solaris in 2002. Martinez incorporated orchestral elements, and fused them with the predominantly electronic sounds of the score. He noted that the "sound palette for Contagion came by way of combining three very different approaches Steven went through as he was cutting the film." Ultimately, Martinez used aspects of all three approaches: "I reasoned that combining them would not only be effective but would give the score a style all its own.".

Awards and Recognition

2 wins & 14 nominations total

Critical Reception

Contagion has received positive reviews by film commentators. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 85% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 278 reviews, with an average rating of 7.10/10.