Synopsis

Patrolling the U.S. border with his gun-toting lover, Sartana, after the massacre in Machete (2010), the stone-faced, former Mexican Federale, Machete, receives a call from the president himself of the United States. Thirsting for retribution, Machete embarks on a deadly mission to bring to Texas the megalomaniac Mexican revolutionary, Marcos, who has a nuclear missile pointing at Washington, D.C. Now, Machete and the undercover agent, Miss San Antonio, have to stop a global war, as the shape-shifting assassin, La Camaleón, is hot on their trail. Can Machete's hungry blades avert the impending Armageddon?

What is the budget of Machete Kills?

"Machete Kills," a action released in 2013, was directed by Robert Rodriguez and stars Danny Trejo, Mel Gibson. The production budget was $20,000,000, placing it in the mid-budget range for action productions of its era.

Key Budget Allocation Categories

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

Stunts, Action Sequences & Visual Effects: Action films allocate a substantial portion of their budget to choreographing and executing practical stunts, pyrotechnics, and CGI-heavy sequences.
Above-the-Line Talent (Cast & Director): A-list talent commands significant upfront fees plus backend participation.
Production Design, Sets & Locations: Action films frequently require multiple international shooting locations, large-scale set construction, vehicle acquisitions and modifications, and specialized equipment , all of which drive production costs well above those of dialogue-driven genres.
Production: On June 10, 2012, Rodriguez announced that principal photography for Machete Kills had begun. Principal photography took only 29 days, as shooting wrapped on July 28, 2012.

What were the major cost factors in Machete Kills?

Several factors contributed to the overall production costs of "Machete Kills."

Stunts: Stunts, Action Sequences & Visual Effects is one of the primary cost drivers in action productions of this scale.
Above-the-Line Talent (Cast: Above-the-Line Talent (Cast & Director) is one of the primary cost drivers in action productions of this scale.
Production Design: Production Design, Sets & Locations is one of the primary cost drivers in action productions of this scale.

How Does Machete Kills's Budget Compare to Similar Films?

At $20,000,000, Machete Kills sits in the mid-budget range. Here is how it compares to productions with a similar budget:

12 Years a Slave (2013): Budget $20,000,000, Worldwide Gross $187,000,000
21 Grams (2003): Budget $20,000,000, Worldwide Gross $60,427,839
3 Ninjas Kick Back (1994): Budget $20,000,000, Worldwide Gross $11,798,854
A Guy Thing (2003): Budget $20,000,000, Worldwide Gross $17,400,000
A Most Violent Year (2014): Budget $20,000,000, Worldwide Gross $12,007,070

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

Machete Kills Box Office Performance

"Machete Kills" earned $8,008,161 domestically and $17,537,186 worldwide at the box office. Against a production budget of $20,000,000, the film faced challenges in theatrical release. Home video, streaming, and ancillary revenue may have contributed to its overall performance.

A film typically needs to earn approximately twice its production budget to cover marketing and distribution costs. For "Machete Kills," that break-even threshold was roughly $40,000,000. With worldwide earnings of $17,537,186, the film did not reach break-even in theatrical release.

Production Budget: $20,000,000
Worldwide Gross: $17,537,186
Net Return: −$2,462,814
ROI: approximately -12.3%

At -12.3%, "Machete Kills" did not recoup its production budget through theatrical release alone.

Awards and Recognition

3 nominations total

Critical Reception

Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a rating of 29% based on 125 reviews, with an average of 4.6/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "While possessed with the same schlocky lunacy as its far superior predecessor, Machete Kills loses the first installment's spark in a less deftly assembled sequel." On Metacritic, which assigns a rating based on reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received a score of 41 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale.