My Spy Budget

What Is the Budget of My Spy (2020)?

My Spy (2020), directed by Peter Segal and starring Dave Bautista, Chloe Coleman, and Kristen Schaal, was produced on a reported budget of $18,000,000. The action comedy was financed by STXfilms in partnership with MWM Studios and Bautista's own production label, with Bautista also taking a producer credit alongside Chris Bender, Robert Simonds, Gigi Pritzker, Jake Weiner, and Jonathan Meisner. The budget reflected the lean economics of post-2017 STX productions, which targeted four-quadrant family audiences at price points well below the studio tentpole tier.

The investment was modest by Hollywood action-comedy standards, sitting roughly one quarter of the cost of a Bautista appearance in a Marvel or James Bond entry. STX positioned the film as a counter-programming summer 2020 release, betting that a kid-and-tough-guy buddy comedy with a recognizable lead from Guardians of the Galaxy could clear $50,000,000 to $70,000,000 worldwide on a controlled spend. The pandemic ultimately scrambled that calculus, and the theatrical math was replaced midstream by an Amazon Prime Video acquisition that converted the project from a wide-release theatrical play into a streaming exclusive in most major markets.

Key Budget Allocation Categories

My Spy's reported $18,000,000 budget was distributed across the following core production areas:

• Above-the-Line Talent: Director Peter Segal (50 First Dates, Get Smart, Tommy Boy) and lead Dave Bautista commanded the largest single line on the budget. Bautista, coming off Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Avengers: Infinity War, accepted a modest fee in exchange for a producer credit and back-end participation, a deal structure that allowed STX to land a recognizable action star at a price point compatible with the overall budget cap.
• Supporting Cast: Chloe Coleman, an eleven-year-old at the time of production, was cast as Sophie after an extensive search and required tutoring, chaperones, and shortened daily hours mandated by Ontario child-labor regulations. Kristen Schaal (Bob's Burgers, The Last Man on Earth), Parisa Fitz-Henley, and Ken Jeong rounded out the principal cast at television-rate fees consistent with the budget tier.
• Toronto Location and Stage Shoot: Principal photography was anchored in Toronto and the surrounding Ontario region, taking advantage of the Ontario Production Services Tax Credit and the Ontario Computer Animation and Special Effects credit. Stage work was complemented by location shooting at Mel Lastman Square (the ice skating sequence), Markham Airport (the runway sequence), and downtown Toronto streetscapes doubling for an unspecified American urban setting.
• Action and Stunt Choreography: The film's opening Ukraine raid, vehicle pursuit sequences, and climactic airfield set piece required a stunt unit, vehicle gags, and squib and pyrotechnic work. Bautista performed many of his own stunts, but the unit still required dedicated coordinators, doubles for Coleman, and rigging crews for the chase choreography.
• Visual Effects: While My Spy was light on heavy CG compared with a comic-book tentpole, the film still required digital cleanup on stunts, muzzle-flash and squib augmentation, set extensions for the rooftop and airport sequences, and limited environmental effects. Multiple Toronto-based vendors handled the work at rates well below Los Angeles or London quotes.
• Music and Score: Composer Dominic Lewis delivered an original orchestral score and the film licensed needle drops drawn from a family-friendly pop catalogue. Music budget covered original composition, orchestra recording, and synchronization fees for the licensed tracks used in the film's comedic montage sequences.
• Marketing and Carrying Costs: After the theatrical release was scuttled by the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, STX absorbed several months of finance and marketing carrying costs before the Amazon deal closed in April 2020. The pre-pandemic marketing spend, including teaser trailers, festival positioning, and international territory launches, was already partially booked when the pivot happened.

How Does My Spy's Budget Compare to Similar Films?

At a reported $18,000,000, My Spy sits firmly in the mid-budget action comedy bracket, well below studio tentpoles featuring its lead and broadly aligned with other kid-and-tough-guy buddy films. The comparison set illustrates where its commercial path diverged:

• My Spy: The Eternal City (2024): Budget $40,000,000 | Worldwide N/A (Amazon Prime Video exclusive). Bautista and Coleman reprised their roles for a sequel produced by Amazon MGM Studios at more than twice the original's budget, with a Venice and Italian Alps shoot replacing the Toronto-anchored production. The streaming-only release format made worldwide grosses unreportable.
• Stuber (2019): Budget $16,000,000 | Worldwide $33,036,396. Twentieth Century Fox's Dave Bautista and Kumail Nanjiani odd-couple action comedy was budgeted nearly identically to My Spy and earned roughly 1.9x its production cost in a pre-pandemic theatrical run, a result that informed STX's budgeting assumptions for My Spy.
• Spectre (2015): Budget $245,000,000 | Worldwide $880,706,755. Bautista's breakout franchise role as Mr. Hinx was bankrolled at more than thirteen times the cost of My Spy, illustrating the gulf between studio tentpole and mid-budget action comedy economics for the same actor.
• The Pacifier (2005): Budget $56,000,000 | Worldwide $198,675,915. Disney's Vin Diesel-led tough-guy-meets-kids comedy is the closest tonal template for My Spy and earned more than 3.5x its budget worldwide, a benchmark STX hoped to approximate at one third the production cost.
• Kindergarten Cop (1990): Budget $26,000,000 | Worldwide $201,957,688. The Arnold Schwarzenegger genre prototype that My Spy explicitly emulated earned 7.7x its budget in 1990 dollars, illustrating the long-term commercial track record of the tough-guy-meets-precocious-kid premise that STX leaned on for marketing.

My Spy Box Office Performance

My Spy's theatrical release was reshaped by the COVID-19 pandemic. The film premiered in Australia on January 9, 2020 and rolled into select international markets through January and February, earning $3,172,429 in Australia alone before US theaters were ordered shut in mid-March 2020. STX's planned March 13, 2020 wide US release was scrubbed days before opening. On April 8, 2020, STX sold the US, UK, and other major-market rights to Amazon, which released the film on Prime Video on June 26, 2020.

Against a reported $18,000,000 production budget, the film grossed $10,200,000 worldwide across the international territories that retained a theatrical release. The Amazon Prime Video acquisition price has not been publicly disclosed, but trade reports placed it in the $25,000,000 to $30,000,000 range, a figure intended to recoup STX's production and pre-pandemic marketing outlay. Here is the financial breakdown:

• Production Budget: $18,000,000
• Estimated Prints & Advertising (P&A): approximately $10,000,000 to $15,000,000 (theatrical-only territories)
• Total Estimated Investment: approximately $28,000,000 to $33,000,000
• Worldwide Gross: $10,200,000
• Net Return: approximately $17,800,000 to $22,800,000 theatrical loss, recouped via Amazon acquisition fee
• ROI: approximately negative 65% to negative 70% (theatrical only, before Amazon fee)

My Spy returned approximately $0.31 to $0.36 in theatrical revenue for every $1 invested when measured against total estimated theatrical investment, a result that would have constituted a clear bomb under normal circumstances. The Amazon Prime Video acquisition is widely understood to have made STX financially whole on the production, with the streaming-only release in major markets converting a likely write-down into a break-even outcome. Industry analysts cite the deal as one of the earliest and most decisive pandemic-era pivots from theatrical to streaming in the family action-comedy category.

The Amazon deal also reset the franchise's economic model. When Amazon greenlit My Spy: The Eternal City (2024), the sequel was budgeted at $40,000,000 and produced as a Prime Video original from inception, with no theatrical release contemplated. The 2020 acquisition effectively transferred the My Spy property from STX's theatrical pipeline into Amazon's streaming originals slate.

My Spy Production History

Development on My Spy began at STX in 2017, with the Hoeber brothers, Jon and Erich Hoeber (RED, Battleship, Meg), delivering a screenplay built around the high-concept premise of a hardened CIA operative blackmailed by the nine-year-old daughter of his surveillance target. Peter Segal, who had directed Adam Sandler in 50 First Dates and Steve Carell in Get Smart, was attached as director in mid-2018 on the strength of his action-comedy track record. Dave Bautista signed on in late 2018 in a deal that included a producer credit through his Dogbone Entertainment shingle, giving the actor a creative stake in the project and tying his fee to back-end participation.

Casting Chloe Coleman as Sophie was the project's pivotal creative decision. Coleman, who had previously appeared in the HBO series Big Little Lies, beat out a slate of finalists in early 2019 and was selected for the combination of comedic timing and dramatic ground that the script required from a child lead carrying half the film. Kristen Schaal, Parisa Fitz-Henley, Ken Jeong, Devere Rogers, and Greg Bryk filled out the supporting cast in early 2019.

Principal photography ran from March through June 2019 in Toronto, Ontario. The shoot anchored at Pinewood Toronto Studios with location days at Mel Lastman Square in North York (the ice-skating sequence), Markham Airport (the climactic runway sequence), and various downtown Toronto streetscapes doubling for an unspecified American city. Larry Blanford served as cinematographer and editor Jason Gourson cut the film for a January 2020 theatrical delivery.

The original theatrical release plan called for a January 2020 launch in Australia, the United Kingdom, and select international territories, followed by a wide US release on March 13, 2020. The Australian opening went forward as planned on January 9, 2020 and grossed $3,172,429. By the time the US release window opened, the COVID-19 pandemic had forced theater closures across North America, and STX scrubbed the March 13 release days in advance. The studio held the title for several weeks while weighing options.

On April 8, 2020, Amazon Studios acquired the US, UK, Canada, and several other major-market rights from STX, with reported terms in the $25,000,000 to $30,000,000 range. Amazon released My Spy on Prime Video on June 26, 2020 with no theatrical window. The decision made My Spy one of the earliest mid-budget Hollywood titles to permanently pivot from a wide theatrical release to a streaming exclusive during the pandemic, predating similar moves on Greyhound, The Lovebirds, and An American Pickle.

Awards and Recognition

My Spy received limited awards recognition, consistent with its mid-budget family action-comedy positioning. Chloe Coleman received a Saturn Award nomination for Best Performance by a Younger Actor in 2021 for her work as Sophie, the film's sole major industry nomination. The Saturn nomination, which placed Coleman alongside young performers from genre and family titles released in the same window, was widely cited as a validation of the casting decision that anchored the film.

The film did not register at the Critics Choice Awards, the Critics' Choice Super Awards (which covers genre and family fare), or the Razzie Awards, the last of which is notable given the film's pandemic-disrupted release and mixed reviews. My Spy was also not submitted in any technical guild ballots and did not appear at the Visual Effects Society Awards or the Motion Picture Sound Editors Golden Reels.

Critical Reception

My Spy received mixed reviews on release. The film holds a 49% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 127 critic reviews, with a critical consensus that called it formulaic but elevated by the chemistry between Bautista and Coleman. On Metacritic, the film scored 46 out of 100 from 20 critics, indicating mixed or average reviews. CinemaScore did not poll the film because the US theatrical release was scuttled by the pandemic and the title premiered domestically on Amazon Prime Video without theatrical audience exit polling.

Critics broadly praised Coleman's performance and her chemistry with Bautista, framing the pairing as the film's primary commercial asset. The Hollywood Reporter's Frank Scheck wrote that "Bautista and Coleman bring real warmth to a premise that could easily have curdled," while Variety's Dennis Harvey noted that the screenplay "leans on familiar beats but lets its two leads do the heavy lifting." Audience reaction on Amazon Prime Video was warmer than the critical consensus, with the title charting as one of the platform's top-streamed acquisitions of summer 2020 and driving the sequel commission.

Detractors focused on the formulaic plotting, the perfunctory action choreography, and the tonal echoes of better-regarded predecessors like Kindergarten Cop and The Pacifier. The Los Angeles Times called the film "competently assembled and almost entirely predictable," and IndieWire flagged the script's reliance on stale spy-comedy beats. The mixed critical reception did not prevent Amazon from greenlighting My Spy: The Eternal City, which entered production in 2022 and released on Prime Video in July 2024.