My Spy Budget

What is the budget of My Spy?

"My Spy," a family released in 2020, was directed by Peter Segal and stars Dave Bautista, Chloe Coleman. 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: On October 5, 2017, it was reported that STX Entertainment had finalized a deal to develop a then-untitled action-comedy film starring Dave Bautista.

What were the major cost factors in My Spy?

Several factors contributed to the overall production costs of "My Spy."

• 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 My Spy's Budget Compare to Similar Films?

At $18,000,000, My Spy 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 2020s ranges from $30 to 80M for mid-budget to $150M+ for tentpoles.

My Spy Box Office Performance

"My Spy" earned $10,200,000 worldwide at the box office. Against a production budget of $18,000,000, 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 "My Spy," that break-even threshold was roughly $36,000,000. With worldwide earnings of $10,200,000, the film did not reach break-even in theatrical release.

• Production Budget: $18,000,000
• Worldwide Gross: $10,200,000
• Net Return: −$7,800,000
• ROI: approximately -43.3%

At -43.3%, "My Spy" did not recoup its production budget through theatrical release alone.

Awards and Recognition

N/A

Critical Reception

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of based on 127 reviews, with an average rating of 5/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "My Spy plugs Dave Bautista into the 'charismatic action star meets cute kid' formula, with generally painless albeit decidedly mediocre results." On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 46 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".