The Hater Budget

What Is the Budget of The Hater (2022)?

The Hater (2022), the directorial debut of Joey Ally and distributed by The Avenue, was produced as a Texas-based independent political comedy on a Sundance-track micro-budget. Production cost has not been formally disclosed, but it is widely reported in the $1,000,000 to $2,000,000 range based on the contained Texas location shoot, the modest principal cast, and the SXSW-festival-track independent-financing model typical for the period.

Financing came primarily through equity investment and producer-team backing. The film premiered at the 2022 SXSW Film Festival in the Narrative Spotlight section and was acquired by The Avenue for North American theatrical and digital distribution. It received a limited theatrical release in September 2022 followed by VOD and digital platform availability.

Key Budget Allocation Categories

The Hater's budget was distributed across several core production areas:

• Cast Compensation: Meredith Hagner (the lead, Dorothy Goodwin) anchored the cast at reduced rates appropriate to the indie-budget tier. Supporting cast included Bruce Dern, Ian Harding, David Rysdahl, and Joey Ally herself in a smaller role, with Dern bringing the most established industry profile to the financing.
• Texas Location Shoot: Principal photography took place in and around the West Texas oil-country region in 2021, with locations including small-town main streets, church interiors, and high-school exteriors. The Texas Film Commission and the Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program supported the production on standard regional-incentive terms.
• Cinematography Package: Cinematographer Sandra Valde-Hansen shot the film with a deliberately warm Texas-landscape palette and natural-light staging, with the lighting and grip footprint deliberately small to support the comedic-indie aesthetic.
• Production Design and Wardrobe: The film required no built sets. Production design relied on dressing existing West Texas small-town locations. Wardrobe drew from real West Texas conservative-political style and small-town professional dress, sourced largely through regional rental and purchase.
• Score and Music: Composer Andrew Carrico scored the film with a sparse country-and-orchestral package supporting the political-comedy register, complemented by licensed needle drops appropriate to the Texas setting.
• Post-Production and Festival Delivery: The post-production budget supported the picture grade, the sound mix, and the festival delivery masters required for the SXSW 2022 premiere. The Avenue absorbed the theatrical-distribution costs after acquisition.

How Does The Hater's Budget Compare to Similar Films?

The Hater sits within the SXSW-track first-feature American political-comedy category of the early 2020s:

• Long Shot (2019): Budget approximately $40,000,000 | Worldwide $50,200,000. The Jonathan Levine theatrical political romantic comedy with Charlize Theron and Seth Rogen cost roughly 25x The Hater budget. It illustrates the wide-release political-comedy budget tier The Hater explicitly did not pursue.
• Irresistible (2020): Budget approximately $13,000,000 | Worldwide $4,700,000. The Jon Stewart small-town-politics comedy with Steve Carell cost about 8x The Hater budget and went the wide-release route via Focus Features, failing to recoup theatrically in part because of the COVID-19 pandemic timing.
• Plus One (2019): Budget approximately $1,500,000 | Worldwide $250,000. The Jeff Chan and Andrew Rhymer SXSW-track first-feature romantic comedy from earlier shows the closest budget-tier and festival-route comparable to The Hater, with a similar acquisition-fee recoupment profile.
• Pet Sematary: Bloodlines (2023): Budget approximately $7,000,000 | Paramount+ release. For context on the modest-budget indie distribution category from an adjacent genre, the Pet Sematary prequel that landed on Paramount+ cost about 4x to 7x The Hater budget but went the streamer-direct route rather than theatrical.

The Hater Box Office Performance

The Hater premiered at the 2022 SXSW Film Festival in the Narrative Spotlight section in March 2022. The Avenue opened the film in limited US theatrical release on September 9, 2022, with simultaneous VOD availability. The theatrical run was small (single-digit theaters in major US markets) and the film primary distribution drove through digital and ancillary platforms.

• Production Budget: estimated $1,000,000 to $2,000,000
• Estimated Prints & Advertising (P&A): minimal (festival-track followed by limited theatrical and VOD)
• Total Estimated Investment: estimated $1,000,000 to $2,000,000
• Worldwide Gross: not separately reported (limited theatrical plus VOD)
• Net Return: recouped via The Avenue acquisition fee plus VOD revenue
• ROI: modest positive via fee structure rather than theatrical revenue

On a pure theatrical-revenue basis, The Hater did not recoup. But because The Avenue acquired worldwide rights at SXSW with an acquisition fee that closed the financing gap on the negative cost, the producers and equity financiers reached recoupment through the festival-acquisition route. The film primary long-term value has been as a directorial calling card for Joey Ally, who has continued in writing and directing work across television and streaming features.

The Hater Production History

The Hater developed out of a screenplay by Joey Ally that drew loosely on her experience growing up in a politically divided American region and her observation of the post-2016 political-media ecosystem. Ally was attached to direct her first feature and also took a supporting on-screen role, with Meredith Hagner casting from her Search Party and 2010s indie-comedy profile.

Principal photography took place in and around the West Texas oil-country region in 2021, with the Texas Film Commission and the Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program supporting the production. The shoot used regional crews and small-town main-street locations that delivered the cultural specificity of the Texas conservative-politics setting.

Post-production wrapped ahead of the SXSW 2022 submission, with the film premiering in the Narrative Spotlight section in March 2022. The Avenue acquired worldwide distribution rights out of the festival, and the limited US theatrical and VOD release followed on September 9, 2022.

Awards and Recognition

The Hater received no major awards recognition. The film was not nominated at the Independent Spirit Awards, the Gotham Independent Film Awards, or the Critics Choice Super Awards. It received favorable buzz from SXSW 2022 but did not win any of the festival juried awards.

The film commercial profile fits the pattern of SXSW-track first-feature independent political comedies that do not enter the major awards conversation despite festival-circuit attention. Its primary legacy is as a directorial debut showcase for Joey Ally rather than as an awards-platform release.

Critical Reception

The Hater received mixed-to-positive reviews. The film holds a 71% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on a small set of approximately 21 critic reviews, with no Metacritic score (the site did not aggregate enough critic reviews to publish one). Audience reaction skewed somewhat lower, with limited audience engagement reflecting the small theatrical footprint.

Praise centered on the Meredith Hagner lead performance, the Bruce Dern supporting work, and the Joey Ally direction as a confident comedy debut. The political-comedy register and the West Texas setting drew positive notices from regional and independent-cinema-focused critics.

The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck called it a sharper political comedy than its limited release would suggest, and Variety filed a generally favorable festival review noting that Joey Ally directorial debut shows real comedic instincts. The film modest theatrical footprint kept it from breaking into wider critical conversation, but the SXSW-track reception supported continued industry interest in Ally as a director and writer.