Someone Great Budget

What Is the Budget of Someone Great (2019)?

Someone Great (2019), written and directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson in her feature debut, was produced on an estimated budget of approximately $10,000,000. The figure has not been formally disclosed by Netflix, but the contained New York City location footprint, the three-handed ensemble structure, the original-music licensing footprint, and the platform's standard original-romantic-comedy spend pattern from this cycle all support a figure in the eight-figure range.

The film was financed and produced by Netflix, with the project anchored around Gina Rodriguez's lead performance as Jenny Young and the supporting ensemble of Brittany Snow, DeWanda Wise, Lakeith Stanfield, and Peter Vack. Netflix released the film globally on the platform on April 19, 2019, with no theatrical window.

Key Budget Allocation Categories

The estimated $10,000,000 budget covered a contained New York City breakup-and-best-friends comedy:

• Above-the-Line Talent: Gina Rodriguez anchored the film at established-lead rates following her Jane the Virgin profile. Brittany Snow and DeWanda Wise filled the best-friend trio at supporting-lead rates. Lakeith Stanfield took a co-lead supporting role as the ex-boyfriend Nate. The ensemble of established TV-to-film leads pushed talent toward a significant percentage of the total budget.
• Writer-Director Package: Jennifer Kaytin Robinson took a first-feature writer-director fee on her debut. Robinson developed the project after her work on MTV's Sweet/Vicious and had a Netflix output relationship that supported the development pipeline.
• New York City Location Footprint: Principal photography took place across Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens during summer 2018, with the apartment, bodega, party-venue, and subway location list forming the contained shooting footprint. The New York shoot pushed location and crew costs into a meaningful line item.
• Cinematography: Autumn Eakin shot the film with a saturated New York summer register and a stylized music-video visual language that the screenplay's montage sequences required. The camera package and the lighting design across the contained location list were a meaningful spend.
• Music Licensing: The film's soundtrack relied on a curated mix of Lizzo, Robyn, Selena Gomez, Lord Huron, and additional contemporary pop and R&B licensing that the breakup-and-best-friends structure required. The 'Truth Hurts' Lizzo licensing in particular drove a meaningful percentage of the music budget, with the film credited as a key cultural moment for the song.
• Post-Production and Netflix Delivery: Editorial, color, sound mix, and the Netflix global delivery package completed the finishing pipeline ahead of the April 19, 2019 worldwide release.

How Does Someone Great's Budget Compare to Similar Films?

Someone Great sits in the contemporary Netflix-original romantic-comedy landscape alongside comparable titles from the same cycle:

• To All the Boys I've Loved Before (2018): Budget approximately $12,000,000 | Worldwide Netflix release. Susan Johnson's Netflix breakout at roughly $2M more in budget offers the closest streaming-romcom peer.
• Set It Up (2018): Budget approximately $8,000,000 | Worldwide Netflix release. Claire Scanlon's Netflix workplace romcom at $2M less in budget offers the closest tonal peer.
• Always Be My Maybe (2019): Budget approximately $15,000,000 | Worldwide Netflix release. Nahnatchka Khan's Netflix romcom at 50% more budget offers the closest contemporary peer.
• The Half of It (2020): Budget approximately $10,000,000 | Worldwide Netflix release. Alice Wu's Netflix queer romance at identical budget offers the closest writer-director-by-a-woman peer.

Someone Great Box Office Performance

Someone Great was released globally on Netflix on April 19, 2019 with no theatrical window. As a Netflix-original streaming-exclusive release, the film has no reported theatrical gross. Netflix does not disclose viewership numbers for the period the film launched, though the platform reported the film as one of its more-watched original romcoms of the 2019 release slate.

Against an estimated $10,000,000 production budget, the financial breakdown:

• Production Budget: approximately $10,000,000
• Estimated Prints & Advertising (P&A): not applicable; Netflix in-platform marketing
• Total Estimated Investment: approximately $10,000,000 production cost absorbed into Netflix originals slate
• Worldwide Gross: not applicable; streaming-exclusive release
• Net Return: measured via Netflix subscriber engagement, not box-office recovery
• ROI: not measurable on box-office basis; Netflix originals economics

Someone Great had no theatrical release and therefore no reported box-office gross. The film's commercial value to Netflix was measured via subscriber acquisition, retention, and engagement around the April 19, 2019 launch and the subsequent long-tail catalog value. The film also drove notable cultural-streaming attention through the breakout licensing use of Lizzo's 'Truth Hurts.'

Someone Great Production History

Someone Great originated as Jennifer Kaytin Robinson's first feature, developed at Netflix following her work on MTV's Sweet/Vicious. Robinson developed the screenplay across 2017 to 2018 around a New York-set breakup story about a music journalist and her two best friends across a final day in the city before she relocates to San Francisco.

Principal photography took place across New York City during summer 2018, with the Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens location list forming the contained shooting footprint. Gina Rodriguez took the lead role as Jenny Young, with Brittany Snow as Blair and DeWanda Wise as Erin filling out the best-friend trio. Lakeith Stanfield took the co-lead supporting role as Nate, Jenny's ex-boyfriend whose breakup anchors the film's emotional spine. The supporting cast included Peter Vack, RuPaul, Rosario Dawson, Jaboukie Young-White, and Rebecca Naomi Jones.

The film premiered globally on Netflix on April 19, 2019 with no theatrical window. The release was timed to coincide with the spring-Coachella-week launch slate and supported by a robust Netflix in-platform marketing campaign, drawing strong viewership and significant cultural-streaming attention through the breakout use of Lizzo's 'Truth Hurts.'

Awards and Recognition

Someone Great received Latino-focused-circuit and contemporary-romcom attention. Gina Rodriguez was nominated for Best Actress at the 2020 Imagen Foundation Awards. The film was nominated for the 2020 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Independent Motion Picture, and Jennifer Kaytin Robinson received first-feature director attention across the awards cycle. The film additionally drew notable cultural-streaming recognition through the breakout licensing use of Lizzo's 'Truth Hurts,' which the song's subsequent multi-week Billboard Hot 100 reign tied to the film's release window.

Critical Reception

Someone Great received broadly positive reviews. The film holds an 86% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on more than 70 critic reviews, with a critical consensus that praised Jennifer Kaytin Robinson's confident debut direction, Gina Rodriguez's lead performance, and the screenplay's commitment to centering the friendship trio rather than the central romance. Metacritic recorded a score of 60 out of 100, indicating mixed-to-positive reviews. CinemaScore did not poll the film given its streaming-exclusive release.

Critics broadly praised Gina Rodriguez for a lead performance that anchored the film's tonal range across the breakup-and-best-friends structure, the casting chemistry across the Rodriguez, Snow, and Wise trio, and the screenplay's commitment to centering Black and Latina friendship in the romantic-comedy genre. Variety's Owen Gleiberman called the film "a fizzy, friendship-forward update on the breakup comedy," and The New York Times' Glenn Kenny praised the lead trio's chemistry. Common reservations cited a stylized music-video aesthetic that some critics argued undercut the emotional realism of the breakup arc. The reception positioned Someone Great as one of Netflix's more discussed 2019 romantic-comedy releases.