Ricki and the Flash Budget

What is the budget of Ricki and the Flash?

"Ricki and the Flash," a comedy released in 2015, was directed by Jonathan Demme and stars Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline. The production budget was $18,000,000, placing it in the low-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: Diablo Cody based the script in part on her mother-in-law Terry Cieri, who has fronted a New Jersey bar band for years.

What were the major cost factors in Ricki and the Flash?

Several factors contributed to the overall production costs of "Ricki and the Flash."

• 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 Ricki and the Flash's Budget Compare to Similar Films?

At $18,000,000, Ricki and the Flash 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 comedy films in the 2010s ranges from $30 to 80M for mid-budget to $150M+ for tentpoles.

Ricki and the Flash Box Office Performance

"Ricki and the Flash" earned $26,822,144 domestically and $41,325,328 worldwide at the box office. Against a production budget of $18,000,000, 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 "Ricki and the Flash," that break-even threshold was roughly $36,000,000. With worldwide earnings of $41,325,328, the film cleared that threshold comfortably.

• Production Budget: $18,000,000
• Worldwide Gross: $41,325,328
• Net Return: $23,325,328
• ROI: approximately 129.6%

At 129.6%, "Ricki and the Flash" earned roughly $2.3 for every $1 invested in production.

Ricki and the Flash Production History

Filming was first set to begin on October 1, 2014, in New York City. On October 14, Streep was spotted filming some scenes at Numi & Co. Hair Salon in Rye.

Awards and Recognition

4 nominations total

Critical Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 64% based on 198 reviews, with an average rating of 6/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Meryl Streep's outstanding work helps Ricki and the Flash overcome its inconsistent tone and fairly-predictable premise." Metacritic gives the film a weighted average score of 54 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.