The Dog Stars Budget

What Is the Budget of The Dog Stars?

Ridley Scott's post-apocalyptic thriller The Dog Stars has not had an official production budget confirmed by 20th Century Studios or Scott Free Productions. Trade estimates place the cost anywhere from $70,000,000 to $110,000,000, a wide enough range that industry outlets differ on which figure to report as the film's true cost. Given the scale of the production, extensive location shooting across Italy plus additional studio work at Cinecittà and Pinewood, a nine figure budget somewhere in that range is plausible for a film of this scope, but no single number has been verified against a primary studio source.

Key Budget Allocation Categories

• Practical Location Shooting in Italy: Principal photography ran from April to June 2025 across multiple Italian locations, including the Cansiglio plateau, Avezzano, Ovindoli, the L'Aquila-Preturo Airport, the EUR district in Rome, and Bosco Macchia Grande in Manziana, trading soundstage construction for authentic, already weathered terrain to sell a depopulated America.
• Studio Work at Cinecittà and Pinewood: Interior and controlled sequences were completed at Rome’s Cinecittà Studios and at Pinewood Studios in the United Kingdom, adding the overhead of maintaining production infrastructure across two countries.
• A-List Ensemble Cast: Jacob Elordi, Margaret Qualley, Josh Brolin, Guy Pearce, Allison Janney, and Benedict Wong make up a stacked ensemble of proven box-office and awards-adjacent talent, a significant above-the-line cost on any studio production.
• Extended Development and Recasting: The project was announced in November 2024 with Paul Mescal in advanced negotiations for the lead. When he exited over scheduling conflicts, Jacob Elordi entered negotiations in January 2025, followed by Qualley, Brolin, and Pearce the following month. A restarted casting process and a delayed start of photography add carrying costs to any production.
• Ridley Scott’s Production Scale: Scott’s productions, made through his own Scott Free Productions, are known for large crews and extensive practical build-outs. His two immediately preceding directorial efforts, Napoleon (2023) and Gladiator II (2024), both carried budgets above $160,000,000.

How Does The Dog Stars's Budget Compare to Similar Films?

With no confirmed budget of its own, The Dog Stars can only be measured against comparable films using its own reported estimate range:

• World War Z (2013): Budget $200,000,000, Worldwide $531,865,000. Even the higher end of The Dog Stars’ reported budget range comes in well under half of what Paramount spent on this pandemic-driven zombie thriller, which still needed a $531,865,000 global gross to be considered a hit.
• I Am Legend (2007): Budget $150,000,000, Worldwide $585,410,052. The closest genre match, a lone survivor and his dog navigating a virus-emptied world, I Am Legend shows the commercial ceiling this kind of premise can reach when reviews and marketing align, a ceiling The Dog Stars’ mixed reception makes unlikely to match.
• Napoleon (2023): Budget $165,000,000, Worldwide $222,435,664. Ridley Scott’s most recent big-budget epic before The Dog Stars also opened under expectations relative to its cost, a pattern that suggests Scott’s large, star-driven productions have struggled to match their budgets at the box office in recent years.

The Dog Stars Box Office Performance

The Dog Stars opened wide in North America on August 28, 2026, in 3,330 theaters, and finished its debut weekend in fifth place with $8,000,000, an average of $2,402 per location. That result landed below industry tracking, which had projected an opening in the $10,000,000 to $14,000,000 range, following a rocky run of reviews in the days before release. Since this is the film’s first weekend in release, there is no prior frame to compare it against yet.

Because the studio has not confirmed a production budget, a reliable return-on-investment figure cannot be calculated for The Dog Stars at this stage. What is clear from the opening weekend alone is that a $2,402 per-theater average, on a wide 3,330-theater release, is a soft start for a film carrying a nine-figure budget estimate and an A-list, Ridley Scott-directed cast. The film will need strong overseas or long-tail domestic performance to approach profitability under any of the reported budget scenarios.

The Dog Stars Production History

Ridley Scott announced in November 2024 that he would direct a science fiction film following his Bee Gees biopic, saying the project was "already written." It was later revealed as an adaptation of Peter Heller’s 2012 novel The Dog Stars, with Mark L. Smith receiving sole screenplay credit; Christopher Wilkinson also worked on the adaptation without a final credit.

Paul Mescal was in advanced negotiations for the lead role of Hig in November 2024, but scheduling conflicts, tied to Sam Mendes’ Beatles biopics, forced him out of the project. Jacob Elordi entered negotiations to replace him in January 2025. Margaret Qualley, Josh Brolin, and Guy Pearce joined the cast in final negotiations the following month, and Benedict Wong was added in May 2025.

Principal photography ran from April to June 2025, based largely in Italy, at locations including the Cansiglio plateau, Avezzano, Ovindoli, and the L'Aquila-Preturo Airport, alongside interior work at Cinecittà Studios and Rome’s EUR district, plus Bosco Macchia Grande in Manziana. Additional work was completed at Pinewood Studios in the United Kingdom.

The film held its world premiere at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square in London on August 20, 2026, ahead of its wide U.S. theatrical release on August 28, 2026. It had originally been scheduled for a March 27, 2026 release before being pushed back.

Awards and Recognition

The Dog Stars opened on August 28, 2026, only days before this page was last updated, and has not yet been recognized by any awards body or major festival beyond its world premiere screening at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square in London on August 20, 2026. Given its mixed critical reception and modest opening weekend, awards-season attention looks unlikely, though this section will be updated if that changes.

Critical Reception

The Dog Stars opened to mixed-to-negative reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 40% approval rating from 163 critics, with an average score of 5.4 out of 10; the site’s critical consensus reads: "A derivative and drowsy tour through the post-apocalypse." On Metacritic, the film scored 49 out of 100 based on 46 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences graded the film a C+ on CinemaScore.

Robert Daniels of RogerEbert.com wrote that "it probably takes more effort to make a boring post-apocalyptic film than a good one." Variety’s Guy Lodge called it "a surprisingly low-energy, low-incident blockbuster" that lacks real characters. The Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney described it as "muted but never dull... appealingly mellow watch," while adding that it is unlikely to rank high among Scott’s films.