The Ritual Budget

What Is the Budget of The Ritual?

The Ritual (2025) is an American religious horror film produced by Cinemachine Shop and Andrew Stevens Entertainment and distributed by XYZ Films. The film's exact production budget has not been publicly disclosed, which is typical for smaller independent horror productions at this scale. The film grossed approximately $5.7 million worldwide, with $527,118 domestically and $5.15 million internationally, suggesting the primary theatrical market was outside the United States.

Directed by David Midell and co-written by Midell and Enrico Natale, The Ritual stars Al Pacino as Father Theophilus Riesinger and Dan Stevens as Father Joseph Steiger, two priests who attempt to perform exorcisms on a young woman played by Abigail Cowen. The film is set in 1928 Iowa and is based on the 1935 book Begone Satan! Ben Foster was originally cast in Dan Stevens's role but was replaced during production.

Key Budget Allocation Categories

• Cast: Al Pacino's involvement at this stage of his career and Dan Stevens's rising profile following roles in Beauty and the Beast and Godzilla x Kong commanded the largest share of the budget. Abigail Cowen, Ashley Greene, Patricia Heaton, and Patrick Fabian complete the cast. Working with Academy Award-winning talent like Pacino on an independent production requires meaningful above-the-line commitment even when stars are motivated by creative rather than commercial considerations.
• Period Production Design: The film is set in 1928 Iowa, requiring period-accurate costumes, set dressing, and props to recreate the Depression-era Midwest. Filming in Natchez, Mississippi, which has extensive period architecture from the early twentieth century, reduced the cost of period production design by leveraging existing historical environments.
• Practical Horror and Exorcism Sequences: The film's central dramatic sequences involve the exorcism rituals themselves, which require practical special effects, prosthetics, and rigging to create the physical manifestations of possession. The film was based on documented exorcism accounts from 1928 and aimed for a relatively grounded portrayal rather than elaborate supernatural spectacle.
• Location in Natchez, Mississippi: Principal photography began in Natchez, Mississippi in January 2024. Natchez's well-preserved antebellum and early-twentieth-century architecture made it a cost-effective stand-in for 1928 Iowa without requiring extensive set construction.

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

The Ritual occupies a specialized niche within religious horror, where faith-based audiences and horror enthusiasts can intersect but where mainstream audience crossover is limited.

• The Pope's Exorcist (2023): Budget $18M | Worldwide $78M. Russell Crowe's exorcism film demonstrates the commercial ceiling for the genre when the lead is in peak form and the studio (Sony) executes a robust marketing campaign targeting both horror and faith audiences simultaneously.
• The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005): Budget $19M | Worldwide $144M. The courtroom-plus-exorcism hybrid that found a formula allowing mainstream thriller audiences to engage with explicitly religious horror content, setting a high-water mark for the genre.
• Deliver Us from Evil (2014): Budget $30M | Worldwide $87M. Scott Derrickson's police procedural exorcism hybrid is another reference point for how religious horror can expand its audience when genre elements are effectively combined.
• The Nun (2018): Budget $22M | Worldwide $365M. The Conjuring Universe spin-off demonstrates the extreme upper range of what religious horror can achieve when embedded in a franchise with an established audience base, providing context for what The Ritual would have needed in terms of franchise positioning to approach that scale.

The Ritual Box Office Performance

The Ritual opened in the United Kingdom and Ireland on May 30, 2025, ahead of its U.S. release on June 6, 2025 through XYZ Films. The film grossed approximately $527,118 domestically and $5.15 million internationally for a worldwide total of approximately $5.7 million. The film's international gross being nearly ten times its domestic gross suggests that the marketing for U.S. theatrical audiences was limited, or that the international release territory included markets with stronger appetite for the religious horror genre and Al Pacino's name recognition.

For a film of this production scale and distribution, the $5.7 million worldwide gross is a modest result. XYZ Films specializes in international sales for independent horror, and the international-skewed performance reflects how that distribution model functions: broad international licensing generates more revenue than a concentrated domestic theatrical push for smaller horror titles.

• Domestic Theatrical Gross: $527,118
• International Theatrical Gross: $5.15M
• Worldwide Gross: ~$5.7M
• Critical Score (Rotten Tomatoes): 9%
• Audience Score (Metacritic): 33/100

The Ritual's commercial performance was limited by its overwhelmingly negative critical reception (9% on Rotten Tomatoes) and the restricted nature of its domestic release. The internationally focused distribution model through XYZ Films means the film's total revenue picture includes foreign licensing deals that are not captured in the theatrical gross figures alone.

The Ritual Production History

The Ritual was developed by director David Midell and writer Enrico Natale based on the 1935 book Begone Satan!, which documents a series of exorcisms performed by Father Theophilus Riesinger on a German-American woman in 1928 Iowa. The book, written by Father Carl Vogl, presents the events as factual and was published with ecclesiastical approval, giving the source material a distinctive standing within the literature of religious experience.

Al Pacino was cast as Father Theophilus Riesinger, taking a role that required him to portray an elderly Capuchin friar performing exorcisms over 23 days. Dan Stevens was cast as Father Joseph Steiger after Ben Foster, who was originally attached, was replaced during production. Abigail Cowen plays Emma Schmidt, the woman undergoing exorcism, with Ashley Greene, Patricia Heaton, and Patrick Fabian in supporting roles. The production based itself in Natchez, Mississippi, beginning principal photography in January 2024.

The film's historical setting of 1928 Iowa required period production design drawing on early twentieth-century Midwestern American aesthetics. The Natchez location provided an efficient foundation of authentic early-twentieth-century architecture. The film was produced by Enrico Natale, Ross Marks, Andrew Stevens, and Mitchell Welch through Cinemachine Shop and Andrew Stevens Entertainment.

The Ritual opened in the United Kingdom and Ireland on May 30, 2025, and in the United States on June 6, 2025, distributed by XYZ Films. The film found small but dedicated audiences among viewers interested in its faith-based subject matter and religious authenticity, while generating significant critical resistance for its execution and pacing.

Awards and Recognition

The Ritual received no significant awards recognition following its release. The film earned 9% on Rotten Tomatoes from 76 critics and 33/100 on Metacritic, reflecting overwhelmingly negative mainstream critical response. The critical consensus described the film as having a "clichéd story with uninspired execution." A number of faith-based publications offered more favorable assessments, praising the film's respectful treatment of the Catholic exorcism tradition and its fidelity to the documented historical events of the 1928 case. Al Pacino's performance generated some commentary as critics debated whether the role was appropriate for his career stage, with comparisons drawn unfavorably to Russell Crowe's work in The Pope's Exorcist.

Critical Reception

The Ritual received overwhelmingly negative reviews from mainstream critics, with a 9% Rotten Tomatoes score and a 33/100 on Metacritic placing it firmly in the "generally unfavorable" category. Reviewers described the film as slow-paced, dramatically inert, and unable to generate genuine suspense or horror from its subject matter. Several critics noted the waste of Al Pacino and Dan Stevens's talent in material that failed to develop their characters beyond archetypes. The comparison to Russell Crowe's stronger performance in the similar-concept The Pope's Exorcist appeared frequently in negative reviews. Faith-based outlets were more sympathetic, praising the film's serious engagement with Catholic theological content and its avoidance of the sensationalism typical of mainstream exorcism horror. The divided response reflects the fundamental challenge facing The Ritual: a film about a specific religious tradition whose most enthusiastic audience prioritizes theological faithfulness over cinematic craft.