The Incredible Burt Wonderstone Budget

What Is the Budget of The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (2013)?

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (2013), directed by Don Scardino and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures through its New Line Cinema label, was produced on a reported budget of $30,000,000. The Las Vegas-set magic comedy paired Steve Carell, fresh off his lead arc on The Office and his 2011-2012 dramatic-comedy run (Crazy, Stupid, Love. and Seeking a Friend for the End of the World), with Steve Buscemi as his longtime magic partner, plus Jim Carrey in a notable supporting turn as the Criss Angel-style edgy-magician antagonist.

The $30,000,000 budget reflected the comedy-genre economics of the early-2010s mid-budget studio comedy tier. Steve Carell's salary, reported in the $5,000,000 to $8,000,000 range plus participation, accounted for the largest single line item. Jim Carrey, working at a significantly reduced rate compared to his late-1990s and early-2000s peak compensation, took a supporting-character salary to participate in what was positioned as a return-to-comedy ensemble project.

Key Budget Allocation Categories

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone's reported $30,000,000 budget was distributed across these production areas:

• Above-the-Line Talent: Steve Carell led the cast as Burt Wonderstone with Steve Buscemi as his longtime partner Anton Marvelton, Jim Carrey as the rival magician Steve Gray, Olivia Wilde as Burt's assistant Jane, James Gandolfini as the casino owner Doug Munny, and Alan Arkin as the elderly mentor Rance Holloway.
• Las Vegas Production: The film shot extensively on the Las Vegas Strip from April to July 2012, with key location work at Bally's Las Vegas, Paris Las Vegas, and the M Resort Spa Casino. The Nevada location shoot drove specific picture-permit, hotel-accommodation, and casino-floor-coordination costs.
• Magic Choreography and Effects: The film employed multiple consulting magicians including Penn Jillette, Teller, and David Copperfield to design the on-screen illusions. The magic-choreography line item covered the elaborate stage shows, the close-up card sequences, and the increasingly extreme Criss Angel-parody stunts performed by Jim Carrey's character. Several practical illusions required custom rigging, fire-effects coordination, and stunt-double choreography.
• Visual Effects: A moderate VFX line covered the stage-magic compositing, the wire-removal for elevated illusion sequences, and the elaborate Burning Man-style fire and aerial effects of Jim Carrey's "Brain Rapist" character.
• Costume Design: Costume designer Dayna Pink dressed Carell and Buscemi in increasingly elaborate magician wardrobes spanning the 1980s flashback sequences and the contemporary Las Vegas show settings.
• Marketing Setup: New Line Cinema positioned the film as the March 2013 spring-comedy release, with marketing emphasizing the Steve Carell-Jim Carrey pairing and the Las Vegas magic-show premise that aimed to evoke memories of David Copperfield and Siegfried & Roy.

How Does The Incredible Burt Wonderstone's Budget Compare to Similar Films?

At $30,000,000, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone sits in the lower mid-range of early-2010s mainstream comedies:

• Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013): Budget $50,000,000 | Worldwide $173,600,000. The Adam McKay-Will Ferrell sequel released later the same year cost roughly two-thirds more than Burt Wonderstone and earned over six times its worldwide gross.
• Identity Thief (2013): Budget $35,000,000 | Worldwide $173,900,000. The Seth Gordon-Jason Bateman-Melissa McCarthy contemporaneous comedy outearned Burt Wonderstone by a factor of six on a slightly higher budget.
• Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011): Budget $50,000,000 | Worldwide $145,000,000. Steve Carell's previous lead comedy cost more than Burt Wonderstone and earned over five times its worldwide gross.
• Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012): Budget $10,000,000 | Worldwide $9,600,000. Carell's previous more dramatic-comedy cost a third of Burt Wonderstone and failed commercially.
• Get Smart (2008): Budget $80,000,000 | Worldwide $230,700,000. Carell's earlier major studio comedy benchmarks his commercial-peak earning power.

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone Box Office Performance

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone opened on March 15, 2013 in a wide release of 3,160 screens, earning $10,141,038 over its three-day opening weekend and finishing second at the domestic box office behind Oz the Great and Powerful in its second weekend. The opening was well below New Line's targets and reflected the difficulty of converting the magic-comedy premise into a mainstream commercial opening.

Against a reported production budget of $30,000,000, the film needed approximately $70,000,000 in worldwide gross to reach profitability accounting for marketing and distribution costs. Here is the financial breakdown:

• Production Budget: $30,000,000
• Estimated Prints & Advertising (P&A): approximately $35,000,000 to $40,000,000
• Total Estimated Investment: approximately $65,000,000 to $70,000,000
• Worldwide Gross: $27,431,755
• Net Return: approximately $37,000,000 to $42,000,000 loss (against total estimated investment)
• ROI: approximately negative 58% (against total estimated investment)

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone returned approximately $0.41 in worldwide theatrical revenue for every $1 invested when measured against total estimated production and marketing spend. The domestic share of the gross was $22,548,773 against an international share of $4,882,982, an 82/18 split heavily weighted toward North America that reflected the property's Las Vegas-magic specificity, which failed to convert to international audiences.

The commercial failure was a clear bomb for New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. The financial outcome was particularly notable given Steve Carell's previous commercial-comedy track record at the studio and the marquee Jim Carrey supporting role. Carell's subsequent comedy projects (Anchorman 2 in late 2013, The Big Short in 2015, and Battle of the Sexes in 2017) pivoted toward ensemble or dramatic-comedy registers rather than the broad-mainstream studio-lead-comedy that Burt Wonderstone had targeted.

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone Production History

Jonathan M. Goldstein and John Francis Daley wrote the original screenplay in 2010, drawing on the long-running American fascination with Las Vegas stage magic and the Criss Angel-style cable-television magic-edge cycle of the mid-2000s. Tyler Mitchell and Jonathan Levin had earlier story credit, with the Goldstein and Daley draft serving as the production screenplay. New Line Cinema acquired the project in 2011 with Chris Bender and Jake Weiner producing through Benderspink, alongside Steve Carell's producing partner Tyler Mitchell and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige's wife Caitlin Feige.

Don Scardino, the longtime 30 Rock and SNL television director, attached to direct in his feature directing debut in early 2012. Casting Steve Carell as Burt Wonderstone provided the project's lead anchor. Steve Buscemi was cast as Anton Marvelton, with Jim Carrey signing on as the rival magician Steve Gray and Olivia Wilde as Burt's assistant Jane Brooks. James Gandolfini was cast as the casino owner Doug Munny in what would be one of his final feature roles before his June 2013 death. Alan Arkin played the elderly mentor Rance Holloway.

Principal photography ran from April to July 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada, with location work at Bally's Las Vegas, Paris Las Vegas, the M Resort Spa Casino, and various Las Vegas Strip exteriors. The production employed magic consultants including Penn Jillette, Teller, and David Copperfield to design the on-screen illusions and to verify the procedural accuracy of the magic-show sequences. New Line scheduled the United States release for March 15, 2013, positioning the film as the studio's spring-comedy opener.

Awards and Recognition

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone received no significant industry awards recognition. The film registered no Oscar, Golden Globe, Saturn Award, or comedy-circuit awards-circuit nominations. The film received no Razzie nominations despite its negative critical reception, in part because the 2014 Razzies focused on more high-profile underperformers including A Madea Christmas and Movie 43.

The film has been largely absent from awards conversation since its release, fitting within the broader pattern of failed early-2010s studio comedies that registered briefly in theaters without translating to lasting cultural visibility. Subsequent retrospective coverage has occasionally cited the film as an example of the declining commercial viability of star-driven mid-budget studio comedy in the post-2010 streaming era.

Critical Reception

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone received mixed-to-negative reviews. The film holds a 36% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 197 critic reviews, with a critical consensus that called the premise potentially interesting but the execution generic and overreliant on broad gags. On Metacritic, the film scored 43 out of 100, indicating mixed-to-unfavorable reviews. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a B-, a typical comedy floor.

Critics broadly praised Jim Carrey's committed performance as the Criss Angel-parody rival Steve Gray and Alan Arkin's deadpan supporting turn as Rance Holloway, while objecting to the underdeveloped Carell-Buscemi pairing and the screenplay's reluctance to commit to either a broad mainstream comedy or a more grounded character-driven Las Vegas backstage drama. The Hollywood Reporter's Todd McCarthy called the film "a comedy with a genuinely interesting premise that settles for a string of mediocre gags rather than trusting its own setup."

Variety's Justin Chang criticized the film's pacing and the screenplay's failure to develop the magic-show authenticity that the Penn Jillette and David Copperfield consulting credits had promised. Roger Ebert gave the film two stars in his Chicago Sun-Times review, writing that Burt Wonderstone "knows what it wants to be but never quite gets there." The mixed-to-negative reception combined with the catastrophic commercial outcome cemented the film's reputation as a representative example of the failing early-2010s studio-lead-comedy cycle.