The Two Popes Budget

What Is the Budget of The Two Popes (2019)?

The Two Popes (2019), directed by Fernando Meirelles and distributed by Netflix, was produced on a reported budget in the $20,000,000 to $30,000,000 range, with industry trade reporting and the film's limited theatrical platform spend suggesting a figure near the higher end of that estimate. Netflix financed the production directly, with Dan Lin and Tracey Seaward producing through Rideback and Anthony McCarten adapting his own stage play, The Pope, into the screenplay. The investment was modest by the standards of an awards-contender drama and reflected Netflix's confidence that two-handers between Hopkins and Pryce, shot largely on a controlled Cinecittà-built Vatican set, did not require tentpole spending.

Compared with traditional theatrical biopics of similar ambition, The Two Popes sits well below The Iron Lady (2011) and on par with prestige conversation pieces such as Frost/Nixon (2008). The math assumed the film would generate revenue primarily through subscriber engagement and awards-driven retention rather than box-office windowing, and the eventual three Oscar nominations validated that thesis.

Key Budget Allocation Categories

The Two Popes' production budget was distributed across the following primary cost categories:

• Above-the-Line Talent: Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce, both at the top of the prestige drama market, anchored the picture as Pope Benedict XVI and the future Pope Francis. Hopkins commanded a major studio rate appropriate to his Silence of the Lambs and Westworld profile, while Pryce, fresh off Game of Thrones, was paid as a lead for the first time in his late career. Anthony McCarten's screenwriting fee reflected his prior nominations for The Theory of Everything and Darkest Hour.
• Italy Production Block: The shoot ran across Rome and the surrounding region. The team rented Cinecittà Studios to construct a one-to-one scale replica of the Sistine Chapel because the Vatican does not permit feature filming inside the real chapel, a build that absorbed a significant share of the art-department budget. Additional sequences shot at Castel Gandolfo doubles and at the Palazzo della Cancelleria covered Vatican exteriors and gardens.
• Argentina Unit: Flashback scenes depicting young Jorge Bergoglio in Buenos Aires during the Dirty War, with Juan Minujín portraying the cardinal as a young Jesuit, were shot on location in Argentina. The international second-unit absorbed travel, local crew rates, and period dressing for 1970s Buenos Aires.
• Cinematography and Production Design: César Charlone (City of God) returned to Meirelles for his signature handheld, documentary-flavored visual approach. The art department, led by production designer Mark Tildesley, executed extensive papal-residence dressing including authentic ecclesiastical garments tailored to Hopkins and Pryce.
• Score: Bryce Dessner of The National composed an original score blending classical liturgical motifs with contemporary minimalism, performed by orchestra in London.
• Visual Effects: Modest by tentpole standards, the VFX budget covered the Sistine Chapel ceiling integration, the Saint Peter's Square crowd extensions during the papal conclave sequence, and seamless transitions between the constructed and location plates.

How Does The Two Popes' Budget Compare to Similar Films?

The Two Popes sits in the mid-range of recent prestige biographical dramas. The comparison set illustrates how its commercial outcome differed because of the Netflix release model:

• The Iron Lady (2011): Budget $13,000,000 | Worldwide $115,925,529. Meryl Streep's Margaret Thatcher biopic cost roughly half what The Two Popes did and out-grossed every theatrical biopic of its decade, illustrating the upside that an awards-led wide release can still deliver.
• Frost/Nixon (2008): Budget $25,000,000 | Worldwide $27,425,491. Ron Howard's play adaptation provides the closest budget-and-format peer, also relying on a two-actor verbal showdown to power its commercial appeal.
• Darkest Hour (2017): Budget $30,000,000 | Worldwide $150,832,418. Joe Wright's Churchill biopic shows what The Two Popes might have grossed theatrically, anchored by an Oscar-winning lead performance and a wide rollout that Netflix declined.
• Marriage Story (2019): Budget $18,000,000 | Worldwide approximately $2,000,000 (limited theatrical). Netflix's other 2019 awards play used a similar windowing strategy and confirmed that subscriber lift, not box-office gross, was the operative success metric.

The Two Popes Box Office Performance

The Two Popes opened in a limited US theatrical run on November 27, 2019 ahead of its December 20 Netflix streaming debut. The theatrical platform release was deliberately small, targeting Academy voters and prestige audiences in New York and Los Angeles. Box Office Mojo records a worldwide theatrical gross of approximately $244,000, reflecting the qualifying run rather than a commercial campaign.

Against the reported production budget, the financial breakdown for theatrical performance is as follows:

• Production Budget: approximately $25,000,000 (reported)
• Estimated Prints & Advertising (P&A): approximately $3,000,000 to $5,000,000 (qualifying run only)
• Total Estimated Investment: approximately $28,000,000 to $30,000,000
• Worldwide Gross: approximately $244,000
• Net Return: not measured via theatrical (subscriber-driven distribution model)
• ROI: measured by Netflix internally through engagement and awards lift

The theatrical numbers are diagnostic only. The Two Popes was conceived as a streaming title with a one-week qualifying run; Netflix has consistently declined to publish viewership data for the film, but the company cited it as one of the most-watched original films of December 2019 in subsequent earnings commentary. The three Academy Award nominations are widely understood inside Netflix as the primary success metric and as a contribution toward the eventual Best Picture nominations the company secured for The Irishman the same season.

The Two Popes Production History

Anthony McCarten began drafting The Pope as a stage play in 2016, sparked by the unprecedented coexistence of two living popes after Benedict XVI's February 2013 resignation. The play premiered at Royal & Derngate in Northampton in 2019 with Anton Lesser and Nicholas Woodeson, while McCarten simultaneously adapted the material into a screenplay. Fernando Meirelles came aboard as director on the basis of his City of God and The Constant Gardener track record for blending intimate character work with broader political context.

Principal photography ran from January through April 2019. The unit shot extensively at Cinecittà Studios in Italy where a one-to-one Sistine Chapel set was constructed, and on location in Rome and Argentina. The Sistine reproduction was particularly significant because the Vatican has consistently denied feature productions access to the real chapel; the set, built and lit to match Vatican photo references, became one of the most discussed elements of the film's craft.

Netflix financed the project directly and acquired worldwide distribution rights. The film premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in August 2019 and screened at Toronto, where it generated standing-ovation buzz and emerged as an awards-season contender. The limited theatrical run preceded the December 20 Netflix global streaming debut and was timed to qualify the film for the Academy Awards.

Awards and Recognition

The Two Popes earned three Academy Award nominations: Best Actor for Jonathan Pryce, Best Supporting Actor for Anthony Hopkins, and Best Adapted Screenplay for Anthony McCarten. The film did not convert any of the three on Oscar night, with Joaquin Phoenix winning Best Actor for Joker, Brad Pitt winning Supporting Actor for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and Taika Waititi winning Adapted Screenplay for Jojo Rabbit.

At the Golden Globes the film received four nominations: Best Picture - Drama, Best Actor - Drama (Pryce), Best Supporting Actor (Hopkins), and Best Screenplay (McCarten). The British Academy Film Awards followed with nominations for the same three lead categories. Anthony McCarten took home the Hollywood Film Award for Screenwriter of the Year and the Las Vegas Film Critics Society Sierra Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Critical Reception

The Two Popes received broadly positive reviews. The film holds an 89% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 271 critic reviews, with the critical consensus calling it a "well-acted, beautifully filmed meditation on faith." On Metacritic the film scored 75 out of 100, indicating generally favorable reviews. CinemaScore data is not available because the film bypassed a wide US release.

Critics singled out the two central performances. The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw praised Hopkins for "an avuncular twinkle that gradually deepens into something approaching repentance," and Variety's Owen Gleiberman called Pryce's Bergoglio "the warmest performance of his late career." The film's structure, which threads Argentine Dirty War flashbacks through the contemporary Vatican conversations, drew more divided reactions, with some reviewers feeling the historical material lacked the immediacy of the present-day scenes.

Religious-press reaction was notably positive across denominations. The Vatican's own L'Osservatore Romano described the film as a "thoughtful imagining" of the two men's relationship, while the National Catholic Reporter highlighted the film's handling of the Bergoglio archbishop years during the Argentine military dictatorship as the strongest material.