What is the budget of Scary Movie?

"Scary Movie," a comedy released in 2000, was directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans and stars Anna Faris, Regina Hall. The production budget was $19,000,000, 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: Shawn Wayans conceived a movie that would parody 1990s teen-slasher movies, and he along with Marlon Wayans, and writing partners Buddy Johnson and Phil Beauman wrote a script with the reported working title of Last Summer I Screamed Because Halloween Fell on Friday the 13th.

What were the major cost factors in Scary Movie?

Several factors contributed to the overall production costs of "Scary Movie."

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 Scary Movie's Budget Compare to Similar Films?

At $19,000,000, Scary Movie sits in the low-budget range. Here is how it compares to productions with a similar budget:

A Cinderella Story (2004): Budget $19,000,000, Worldwide Gross $70,067,909
A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas (2011): Budget $19,000,000, Worldwide Gross $36,192,775
Action Point (2018): Budget $19,000,000, Worldwide Gross $5,059,608
Arthur the King (2024): Budget $19,000,000, Worldwide Gross $40,829,138
Back to the Future (1985): Budget $19,000,000, Worldwide Gross $381,109,762

The median budget for wide-release comedy films in the 2000s ranges from $30 to 80M for mid-budget to $150M+ for tentpoles.

Scary Movie Box Office Performance

"Scary Movie" earned $157,019,771 domestically and $278,023,280 worldwide at the box office. Against a production budget of $19,000,000, the film performed strongly at the box office.

A film typically needs to earn approximately twice its production budget to cover marketing and distribution costs. For "Scary Movie," that break-even threshold was roughly $38,000,000. With worldwide earnings of $278,023,280, the film cleared that threshold comfortably.

Production Budget: $19,000,000
Worldwide Gross: $278,023,280
Net Return: $259,023,280
ROI: approximately 1363.3%

At 1363.3%, "Scary Movie" earned roughly $14.63 for every $1 invested in production.

Scary Movie Production History

The soundtrack to Scary Movie was released on July 4, 2000, through TVT Records and consists of a blend of hip hop and rock music. ; Track listing # "Too Cool for School" - 2:27 (Fountains of Wayne) # "The Inevitable Return of the Great White Dope" - 3:53 (Bloodhound Gang) # "Stay" - 3:56 (Radford) # "The Only Way to Be" - 3:20 (Save Ferris) # "My Bad" - 3:22 (Oleander) # "Punk Song #2" - 2:46 (Silverchair) # "Everybody Wants You" - 4:11 (Unband) # "Superfly" - 2:55 (Bender) # "I Wanna Be Sedated" - 2:31 (The Ramones) # "Scary Movies" - 3:56 (Bad Meets Evil) # "All Bout U" - 4:34 (2Pac, Top Dogg, Yaki Kadafi, Hussein Fatal, Nate Dogg & Dru Down) # "I Want Cha" - 4:37 (Black Eyed Peas) # "What What" - 5:03 (Public Enemy) # "Feel Me" - 3:49 (Rah Digga, Rampage & Rock) # "I'm the Killer" - 3:57 (Lifelong & Incident).

Awards and Recognition

8 wins & 7 nominations total

Critical Reception

Scary Movie received mixed reviews from critics. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 51% based on 117 reviews, with an average score of 5.50/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Critics say Scary Movie overloads on crudity and grossness to get its laughs." On Metacritic, the film received a score of 48 based on 32 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale.