What is the budget of ParaNorman?

"ParaNorman," a family released in 2012, was directed by Sam Fell, Chris Butler and stars Kodi Smit-McPhee, Tucker Albrizzi. The production budget was $60,000,000, placing it in the high-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: In June 2025, Laika announced at the Annecy of a re-release of their film ParaNorman with company Fathom Entertainment along with a CGI-animated short follow-up by as part of their 20th anniversary of the studio.

What were the major cost factors in ParaNorman?

Several factors contributed to the overall production costs of "ParaNorman."

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 ParaNorman's Budget Compare to Similar Films?

At $60,000,000, ParaNorman sits in the high-budget range. Here is how it compares to productions with a similar budget:

15 Minutes (2001): Budget $60,000,000, Worldwide Gross $56,359,980
Almost Famous (2000): Budget $60,000,000, Worldwide Gross $47,386,287
Analyze That (2002): Budget $60,000,000, Worldwide Gross $55,003,135
Antz (1998): Budget $60,000,000, Worldwide Gross $171,757,863
Cats & Dogs (2001): Budget $60,000,000, Worldwide Gross $200,687,492

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

ParaNorman Box Office Performance

"ParaNorman" earned $56,003,051 domestically and $107,307,220 worldwide at the box office. Against a production budget of $60,000,000, 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 "ParaNorman," that break-even threshold was roughly $120,000,000. With worldwide earnings of $107,307,220, the film fell short of that threshold but recouped its production costs in theatrical release.

Production Budget: $60,000,000
Worldwide Gross: $107,307,220
Net Return: $47,307,220
ROI: approximately 78.8%

At 78.8%, "ParaNorman" returned its production investment but margin was tight after marketing and distribution costs.

ParaNorman Production History

Jon Brion composed the film's score, and an accompanying soundtrack album was released on August 14, 2012. Bits of other music appear in the film, including the theme music from Halloween, the Donovan song "Season of the Witch" (sung by the school play cast) and "Fix Up, Look Sharp" by British rapper Dizzee Rascal. "Little Ghost", a White Stripes song from their 2005 album Get Behind Me Satan, plays at the end, over character cards identifying the main cast.

Awards and Recognition

Nominated for 1 Oscar. 19 wins & 46 nominations total

Critical Reception

Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gives ParaNorman an approval rating of 89% based on 189 reviews, and an average score of 7.3/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Beautifully animated and solidly scripted, ParaNorman will entertain (and frighten) older children while providing surprisingly thoughtful fare for their parents." Metacritic gives the film a weighted average score of 72 out of 100 based on 33 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.