The Big Sick Budget

What is the budget of The Big Sick?

"The Big Sick," a comedy released in 2017, was directed by Michael Showalter and stars Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan. The production budget was $5,000,000, 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.
• Writing: The screenplay for The Big Sick is written by Emily V.

What were the major cost factors in The Big Sick?

Several factors contributed to the overall production costs of "The Big Sick."

• 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 The Big Sick's Budget Compare to Similar Films?

At $5,000,000, The Big Sick sits in the low-budget range. Here is how it compares to productions with a similar budget:

• Come and See (1985): Budget $5,000,000, Worldwide Gross $20,929,648
• Cinema Paradiso (1988): Budget $5,000,000, Worldwide Gross $35,962,062
• Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985): Budget $5,000,000 , Gross $502,758
• Once Upon a Time in the West (1968): Budget $5,000,000, Worldwide Gross $5,380,118
• A Separation (2011): Budget $5,000,000, Worldwide Gross $24,426,169

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

The Big Sick Box Office Performance

"The Big Sick" earned $56,303,596 worldwide at the box office. Against a production budget of $5,000,000, 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 "The Big Sick," that break-even threshold was roughly $10,000,000. With worldwide earnings of $56,303,596, the film cleared that threshold comfortably.

• Production Budget: $5,000,000
• Worldwide Gross: $56,303,596
• Net Return: $51,303,596
• ROI: approximately 1026.1%

At 1026.1%, "The Big Sick" earned roughly $11.26 for every $1 invested in production.

The Big Sick Production History

The screenplay for The Big Sick is written by Emily V. Gordon and her husband Kumail Nanjiani and is loosely based on the real-life courtship between them before their marriage in 2007. According to Nanjiani, the idea to make a script about them was first inspired by the film's eventual co-producer Judd Apatow when the two met while appearing in a 2012 episode of the You Made It Weird podcast.

In February 2016, Zoe Kazan joined the cast, along with Holly Hunter and Ray Romano in April 2016. Unlike many of the other portrayals in The Big Sick, Romano's and Hunter's roles in the film were not modeled after Emily V. Gordon's actual parents.

Critical Reception

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 98% based on 303 reviews, with an average rating of 8.30/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Funny, heartfelt, and intelligent, The Big Sick uses its appealing leads and cross-cultural themes to prove the standard romcom formula still has some fresh angles left to explore." It was rated as Rotten Tomatoes' #1 summer movie of 2017. On Metacritic, the film received an average score of 86 out of 100, based on 47 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".