What is the budget of Diary of a Wimpy Kid Rodrick Rules?

"Diary of a Wimpy Kid Rodrick Rules," a family released in 2011, was directed by David Bowers and stars Zachary Gordon, Devon Bostick. The production budget was $18,000,000, placing it in the low-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: Talks of a sequel were announced after the release of the first, but was not officially announced until May 12, 2010, announcing that it would be released on March 25, 2011.

What were the major cost factors in Diary of a Wimpy Kid Rodrick Rules?

Several factors contributed to the overall production costs of "Diary of a Wimpy Kid Rodrick Rules."

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 Diary of a Wimpy Kid Rodrick Rules's Budget Compare to Similar Films?

At $18,000,000, Diary of a Wimpy Kid Rodrick Rules sits in the low-budget range. Here is how it compares to productions with a similar budget:

127 Hours (2010): Budget $18,000,000, Worldwide Gross $35,700,000
A Dog's Way Home (2019): Budget $18,000,000, Worldwide Gross $17,643,857
Amadeus (1984): Budget $18,000,000, Worldwide Gross $90,007,557
And So It Goes (2014): Budget $18,000,000, Worldwide Gross $25,312,387
Barbershop 2: Back in Business (2004): Budget $18,000,000 , Gross $65,070,412

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

Diary of a Wimpy Kid Rodrick Rules Box Office Performance

"Diary of a Wimpy Kid Rodrick Rules" earned $52,698,535 domestically and $72,200,000 worldwide at the box office. Against a production budget of $18,000,000, 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 "Diary of a Wimpy Kid Rodrick Rules," that break-even threshold was roughly $36,000,000. With worldwide earnings of $72,200,000, the film cleared that threshold comfortably.

Production Budget: $18,000,000
Worldwide Gross: $72,200,000
Net Return: $54,200,000
ROI: approximately 301.1%

At 301.1%, "Diary of a Wimpy Kid Rodrick Rules" earned roughly $4.01 for every $1 invested in production.

Awards and Recognition

2 wins & 5 nominations total

Critical Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 48% based on 99 reviews and an average rating of 5.4/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Moderately witty and acceptably acted, Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2 isn't much worse than the first installment." On Metacritic, it has a score of 51 out of 100 based on 23 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave it an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.