What is the budget of Selfless?

"Selfless," a science fiction released in 2015, was directed by Tarsem Singh and stars Ryan Reynolds, Ben Kingsley. The production budget was $26,000,000, placing it in the mid-budget range for science fiction productions of its era.

Key Budget Allocation Categories

While specific budget breakdowns are not publicly available, typical cost drivers for a science fiction production like this include:

Visual Effects & CGI Pipeline: Sci-fi films are among the most VFX-intensive productions in Hollywood.
Production Design & World-Building: Creating a believable sci-fi world required significant investment in set construction, prop fabrication, and conceptual design , from physical environments through LED volume stages and virtual production technology.
Technology & Camera Systems: Cutting-edge camera rigs, motion capture stages, LED volume stages (virtual production), and proprietary rendering technology often push the technical budget far beyond conventional filming costs.
Production: Endgame Entertainment and FilmDistrict financed the film, quickly putting it into development after the success of the two companies' science fiction movie Looper.

What were the major cost factors in Selfless?

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

Visual Effects: Visual Effects & CGI Pipeline is one of the primary cost drivers in science fiction productions of this scale.
Production Design: Production Design & World-Building is one of the primary cost drivers in science fiction productions of this scale.
Technology: Technology & Camera Systems is one of the primary cost drivers in science fiction productions of this scale.

How Does Selfless's Budget Compare to Similar Films?

At $26,000,000, Selfless sits in the mid-budget range. Here is how it compares to productions with a similar budget:

Flatliners (1990): Budget $26,000,000, Worldwide Gross $61,489,265
Freaky Friday (2003): Budget $26,000,000, Worldwide Gross $160,846,332
Emilia Pérez (2024): Budget $26,000,000, Worldwide Gross $16,317,120
Judas and the Black Messiah (2021): Budget $26,000,000, Worldwide Gross $6,416,063
Motherless Brooklyn (2019): Budget $26,000,000, Worldwide Gross $18,377,736

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

Selfless Box Office Performance

"Selfless" earned $31,807,156 worldwide at the box office. Against a production budget of $26,000,000, 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 "Selfless," that break-even threshold was roughly $52,000,000. With worldwide earnings of $31,807,156, the film fell short of that threshold but recouped its production costs in theatrical release.

Production Budget: $26,000,000
Worldwide Gross: $31,807,156
Net Return: $5,807,156
ROI: approximately 22.3%

At 22.3%, "Selfless" returned its production investment but margin was tight after marketing and distribution costs.

Critical Reception

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports a rating of based on reviews, and an average rating of . The site's consensus reads: "Self/less boasts a potential-packed premise, but does frustratingly little with it, settling for lackluster action at the expense of interesting ideas." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 34 out of 100, based on the reviews of 30 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". In CinemaScore polls, audiences gave Self/less an average grade of B+ on an A+ to F scale.