Night School Budget

What is the budget of Night School?

"Night School," a comedy released in 2018, was directed by Malcolm D. Lee and stars Kevin Hart, Tiffany Haddish. The production budget was $29,000,000, placing it in the mid-budget range for comedy productions of its era.

Key Budget Allocation Categories

While specific budget breakdowns are not publicly available, typical cost drivers for a comedy 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: Principal photography began in Atlanta, Georgia in September 2017.

What were the major cost factors in Night School?

Several factors contributed to the overall production costs of "Night School."

• Talent Salaries: Talent Salaries & Producing Deals is one of the primary cost drivers in comedy productions of this scale.
• Production: Production & Location Filming is one of the primary cost drivers in comedy productions of this scale.
• Marketing: Marketing & P&A (Prints & Advertising) is one of the primary cost drivers in comedy productions of this scale.

How Does Night School's Budget Compare to Similar Films?

At $29,000,000, Night School sits in the mid-budget range. Here is how it compares to productions with a similar budget:

• The Notebook (2004): Budget $29,000,000, Worldwide Gross $115,600,000
• Pitch Perfect 2 (2015): Budget $29,000,000, Worldwide Gross $287,144,079
• Like a Boss (2020): Budget $29,000,000, Worldwide Gross $26,900,000
• Logan Lucky (2017): Budget $29,000,000, Worldwide Gross $48,453,605
• The Blind Side (2009): Budget $29,000,000, Worldwide Gross $309,231,694

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

Night School Box Office Performance

"Night School" earned $33,157,615 worldwide at the box office. Against a production budget of $29,000,000, 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 "Night School," that break-even threshold was roughly $58,000,000. With worldwide earnings of $33,157,615, the film fell short of that threshold but recouped its production costs in theatrical release.

• Production Budget: $29,000,000
• Worldwide Gross: $33,157,615
• Net Return: $4,157,615
• ROI: approximately 14.3%

At 14.3%, "Night School" returned its production investment but margin was tight after marketing and distribution costs.

Critical Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 27% based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critical consensus reads, "Night Schools funny stars and seemingly promising setup add up to a disappointingly scattershot comedy whose laughs are largely held in detention." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 43 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".