The Kissing Booth 3 Budget

What Is the Budget of The Kissing Booth 3 (2021)?

The Kissing Booth 3 (2021), directed by Vince Marcello and distributed by Netflix, was produced on an undisclosed budget estimated in the $15,000,000 to $20,000,000 range, consistent with the Netflix high-end teen-romance feature tier. The film was shot back-to-back with The Kissing Booth 2 (2020) in 2019 in South Africa, with both productions sharing crew, cast, and a single extended principal-photography block. The shared production block significantly reduced per-film overhead relative to a single standalone Netflix-original teen-romance.

The investment reflected the economics of a franchise-finale streaming feature with established A-list teen-audience cast (Joey King, Joel Courtney, Jacob Elordi, Taylor Zakhar Perez) and significant Cape Town and surrounding-area location production. Netflix kept the back-to-back filming secret until late 2020, when the company simultaneously announced the third film's existence and the August 11, 2021 release date.

Key Budget Allocation Categories

The Kissing Booth 3's production budget was distributed across the following categories:

• Above-the-Line Talent: Joey King (Bullet Train, The Princess), Joel Courtney (Super 8, The Town That Dreaded Sundown), Jacob Elordi (Euphoria), Taylor Zakhar Perez, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, Meganne Young, and Molly Ringwald anchored the cast. King's deal renegotiation for the second and third films reflected her significantly increased post-Kissing Booth 1 industry profile, with her producer credit on both sequels providing back-end participation in the franchise's streaming success.
• South Africa Production: The back-to-back shoot of films 2 and 3 ran across July through October 2019 in and around Cape Town, with significant location work at coastal estates standing in for the Flynn family beach house and at Cape Town beach venues for the summer-vacation set pieces. South Africa's Department of Trade and Industry film-incentive scheme at 25 percent on qualifying foreign expenditure anchored the financing.
• Production Design and Costume: Production designer Patricia Klawonn dressed the third film's expanded set list, including a transformed Flynn beach house, a Harvard-themed dream sequence, and the climactic beach-party finale set. Costume designer Lourike Botha delivered Joey King's extensive wardrobe arc across multiple summer-romance set pieces.
• Music and Soundtrack: The Kissing Booth franchise relies heavily on contemporary teen-romance needle-drop soundtracks. The third film features tracks by Joey King's then-collaborator and original-song contributor, plus contemporary licensed cues. Music licensing was a meaningful share of the budget.
• Cinematography and Lighting: Cinematographer Anastas N. Michos (Quiz Show, Mona Lisa Smile) shot the back-to-back productions with a glossy summer-romance look, leaning into golden-hour exteriors at Cape Town beaches and lit interior set pieces at the constructed Flynn family beach house.
• Distribution and Marketing: Netflix orchestrated a coordinated August 11, 2021 global streaming launch, with marketing emphasizing the franchise-finale positioning and the back-to-back production reveal that had been kept under wraps for nearly two years.

How Does The Kissing Booth 3's Budget Compare to Similar Films?

The Kissing Booth 3 sits firmly within the Netflix high-end teen-romance feature tier. The comparison set illustrates the range:

• The Kissing Booth (2018): Budget approximately $7,000,000 | Worldwide undisclosed (Netflix). The original franchise installment cost roughly half what the back-to-back sequels did and reportedly drew sufficient viewership to support the franchise commissioning.
• To All the Boys I've Loved Before (2018): Budget approximately $5,000,000 | Worldwide undisclosed (Netflix). Susan Johnson's same-year Netflix teen-romance peer at a slightly lower budget shows the direct streaming comparison.
• Tall Girl (2019): Budget approximately $4,000,000 | Worldwide undisclosed (Netflix). Nzingha Stewart's Netflix teen-comedy at a tighter budget represents the lower end of the same category.
• After (2019): Budget approximately $14,000,000 | Worldwide $69,683,127. Jenny Gage's Aviron Pictures theatrical young-adult romance shows the comparable theatrical-release tier for the genre.

The Kissing Booth 3 Box Office Performance

The Kissing Booth 3 was released worldwide on Netflix on August 11, 2021, with no theatrical run. Box Office Mojo and The Numbers record no public theatrical gross. Netflix's economic case was streaming engagement, franchise-finale subscriber retention, and Top 10 chart performance rather than ticket revenue.

Against the estimated production budget, the financial breakdown is as follows:

• Production Budget: approximately $15,000,000 to $20,000,000 (estimated)
• Estimated Prints & Advertising (P&A): approximately $5,000,000 to $10,000,000 (streaming-focused)
• Total Estimated Investment: approximately $20,000,000 to $30,000,000
• Worldwide Gross: not measured (streaming-exclusive release)
• Net Return: profitable for Netflix on a per-subscriber engagement basis (Top 10 in 60+ countries on opening week)
• ROI: measured by Netflix internally through franchise-finale engagement, cumulative subscriber-retention impact, and Joey King post-franchise commitment

Netflix has not published unit-viewership data for The Kissing Booth 3, but the picture reached the Top 10 most-watched English-language films on Netflix in more than 60 countries during the opening week of August 11, 2021. The combined three-film franchise has consistently been cited in Netflix earnings commentary as a flagship example of the company's teen-romance feature strategy. Joey King signed a multi-project Netflix deal in 2021, with several subsequent Netflix-original features (The Princess, Bullet Train co-financing) reflecting the franchise's commercial value.

The Kissing Booth 3 Production History

Vince Marcello announced The Kissing Booth 2 in early 2019, with Netflix simultaneously confirming a third installment that would shoot back-to-back. The back-to-back production decision allowed the producers to leverage a single principal cast availability window and to amortize South Africa production overhead across two films. Joey King was credited as producer on both sequels, in recognition of her post-Kissing Booth 1 profile boost and her on-camera commitment to the franchise.

Principal photography on the combined Kissing Booth 2 and 3 shoot ran across July through October 2019 in and around Cape Town. The third film was shot in production order alongside the second, with the same crew, cast, and constructed sets carrying across both. The back-to-back shoot was a closely guarded secret in the production community, with Netflix keeping the third film's existence hidden until the simultaneous announcement-and-release-date reveal in late 2020.

Post-production on the third film ran across 2020 and early 2021, with COVID-19 protocols affecting the ADR, scoring, and mixing schedule. The Kissing Booth 3 debuted globally on Netflix on August 11, 2021, three weeks before Joey King's 22nd birthday and one week ahead of the September 2021 fall school season, a calendar slot Netflix calculated would maximize teen-audience engagement.

Awards and Recognition

The Kissing Booth 3 did not receive significant industry awards recognition. The film was not nominated at the Teen Choice Awards (which had ended in 2019), the Critics' Choice Awards, or the MTV Movie Awards. The picture avoided Razzie consideration despite its mixed-to-negative reviews.

Joey King received a People's Choice Awards 2022 nomination in the Drama Movie Star of 2021 category for her work on the franchise as both lead and producer. The combined Kissing Booth trilogy is widely cited in trade press as a foundational title for the Netflix teen-romance franchise model alongside To All the Boys I've Loved Before.

Critical Reception

The Kissing Booth 3 received negative reviews. The film holds a 25% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 20 critic reviews, with no critical consensus assigned because of the limited critic review pool. The picture's average critic rating was 3.6 out of 10 across the recorded reviews. On Metacritic the film does not have an assigned score because of insufficient critic reviews. CinemaScore data is not available because the film bypassed theatrical release.

Critics consistently objected to the screenplay's pacing, the predictability of the central love-triangle resolution, and the franchise-finale tone. The Guardian's Lucy Mangan called the third film "a confused, overlong farewell that resolves none of the franchise's persistent character problems," and Decider's John Serba wrote that the picture "does just enough to confirm the franchise's mediocrity without offering any surprises." Joey King's lead performance and the central trio's chemistry drew the most consistent positive notes amid the otherwise mixed reception.

Audience reaction was significantly more positive than critical reaction, a common pattern for Netflix teen-romance trilogies. The Kissing Booth 3 reached the Top 10 most-watched English-language films on Netflix in more than 60 countries during the opening week, and Joey King's signature franchise role has remained the most-cited reference point in her subsequent press coverage. The combined three-film franchise has cemented itself as a benchmark for streaming teen-romance commercial value despite the critical mediocrity.