The Union Budget

What Is the Budget of The Union (2024)?

The Union (2024), directed by Julian Farino and released globally by Netflix, was produced on an estimated budget of approximately $80,000,000. The figure has not been formally disclosed by Netflix, Mark Wahlberg's Closest to the Hole production company, or Mary McCartney's Stripes Entertainment, but the dual A-list above-the-title casting of Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry, the international action-spy production scale across London, Trieste, and Slovenian locations, the substantial action-set-piece load, and the established Netflix big-budget original-feature band for star-driven action vehicles all support a figure in the mid-to-high-seventy-millions range typical of platform action originals.

The film operated as one of Netflix's tentpole August 2024 launches, a slot the platform has historically used for high-profile star-driven action features intended to drive subscription engagement during the late-summer programming window.

Key Budget Allocation Categories

The estimated $80,000,000 budget covered an international action-spy feature with substantial above-the-line costs, multi-country location production, and a sustained action-set-piece program:

• Above-the-Line Talent: Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry anchored the production as the dual leads. The above-the-title talent commanded fees consistent with their established post-2020 streaming-deal rates, with the dual A-list casting consuming a substantial share of the production budget. Mike Colter, J.K. Simmons, Adam Copeland, Jackie Earle Haley, Stephen Campbell Moore, and Alice Lee filled out a recognizable supporting ensemble. Julian Farino, an established British television director with credits including Entourage and Marvellous, came aboard for his second feature.
• International Location Production: Principal photography took place across London, Trieste (Italy), Slovenia, and the New York metropolitan area in 2023. The international location schedule required substantial travel-and-accommodation budget across multiple country jurisdictions, with each location exploited for its specific narrative geography. The international production qualified for various country-and-region tax-incentive offsets that partially offset the cross-border location costs.
• Action Set Pieces and Stunt Coordination: The screenplay required a sustained action-set-piece program including European-city chase sequences, rooftop and street-level pursuit work, gunfight choreography, and a third-act climactic set piece. Stunt coordination, vehicle work, weapons handling, and the safety-and-rigging infrastructure across the international location schedule consumed a substantial share of the production budget.
• Cinematography and Lighting: Director of photography Larry Smith (Eyes Wide Shut, Bronson, Only God Forgives) shot the film in a glossy, kinetic register that supports the action-spy genre conventions while preserving the romantic-comedy subplot register the screenplay also pursued. The international location lighting and the dedicated action-set-piece lighting design consumed a substantial cinematography budget.
• Score and Sound Design: Composer Christopher Lennertz delivered an action-spy score with romantic-subplot interludes that anchored the genre register. Sound design across the action set pieces required extensive Dolby Atmos work and a substantial gunfire-and-vehicle-impact library.
• Visual Effects: The visual effects load was substantial without reaching tentpole superhero scale: explosion enhancement, gun-and-vehicle-impact enhancement, location extension across the international city sequences, and the climactic set-piece work all required dedicated VFX vendor management.
• Post-Production and Streaming Delivery: Editorial, color, sound mix, the visual-effects integration, and the Netflix Worldwide master delivery in Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos consumed the post-production budget. The film completed delivery in mid-2024 ahead of the August launch.
• Marketing Campaign: Netflix conducted a major platform-and-press marketing campaign across the summer 2024 launch window, with Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry anchoring the press tour, the global-premiere appearances, and the platform-wide promotional carousel placement.

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

The Union sits within the streaming-original action-feature landscape and the broader buddy-action-spy genre:

• Red Notice (2021): Budget $200,000,000 | Worldwide not separately reported. Rawson Marshall Thurber's Netflix tentpole at more than double the budget illustrates the higher-investment platform tier for triple-A-list action vehicles and establishes the cost ceiling for the Netflix-action category that The Union operates one tier below.
• The Adam Project (2022): Budget approximately $116,000,000 | Worldwide not separately reported. Shawn Levy's Netflix Ryan Reynolds science-fiction action at higher budget illustrates a comparable platform-tentpole investment in star-driven genre production.
• The Gray Man (2022): Budget $200,000,000 | Worldwide not separately reported. Anthony and Joe Russo's Netflix Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans action thriller at more than double the budget illustrates the higher-investment platform tier and the cost gap between The Union and Netflix's most expensive action originals.
• Heart of Stone (2023): Budget approximately $130,000,000 | Worldwide not separately reported. Tom Harper's Netflix Gal Gadot action thriller at higher budget illustrates the comparable platform-tentpole-tier action-feature spending and the budget range Netflix has applied to its star-driven action originals across the post-2020 window.

The Union Box Office Performance

The Union released globally on Netflix on August 16, 2024 without a theatrical-qualifying window. The film operated entirely as a streaming-platform release with the commercial reception unfolding through platform-engagement metrics rather than theatrical receipts. Netflix structured the launch as a tentpole-anchored late-summer release.

Because the film was a streaming-exclusive release, the standard six-bullet box office breakdown applies in modified form:

• Production Budget: approximately $80,000,000
• Estimated Prints & Advertising (P&A): approximately $40,000,000 to $60,000,000 (Netflix global launch campaign)
• Total Estimated Investment: approximately $120,000,000 to $140,000,000
• Worldwide Theatrical Gross: $0 (streaming-exclusive release)
• Net Return: recovered through global streaming engagement and subscription-driver impact across the August 2024 launch window
• ROI: not publicly reported; the platform reported 47.7 million views across the first 91 days as the platform-side commercial metric

Netflix reported 47.7 million views across the first 91 days of release. The Union reached number one on the platform's English-language film chart in its launch week and held a multi-week run in the global Top 10. The platform reception established the film as a meaningful late-summer 2024 subscription-driver, though the platform engagement did not reach the tier of Red Notice or The Adam Project.

The Union Production History

The Union developed at Netflix through a deal with Mark Wahlberg's Closest to the Hole production company. The screenplay was written by Joe Barton (Giri/Haji, The Lazarus Project) and David Guggenheim (Safe House) as a buddy-action-spy feature anchored by the dual lead pairing and the romantic-comedy subplot interlocking with the espionage narrative. Julian Farino came aboard as director after his television work on Entourage, Marvellous, and Snow Falling on Cedars. Principal photography took place across London, Trieste, Slovenia, and the New York metropolitan area in 2023, with the international location schedule supporting the multi-country narrative geography.

Mark Wahlberg took the role of Mike McKenna, a New Jersey construction worker recruited into a covert intelligence agency. Halle Berry played Roxanne Hall, Mike's former high-school girlfriend now serving as a senior agent in the agency that recruits him. Mike Colter, J.K. Simmons, Adam Copeland (Edge), Jackie Earle Haley, Stephen Campbell Moore, and Alice Lee filled out the supporting ensemble. The international location schedule required substantial scheduling coordination across the 2023 production window.

Post-production proceeded across the first half of 2024. Netflix set a global August 16, 2024 launch and conducted a major platform-and-press marketing campaign anchored by Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry. The launch operated as one of Netflix's tentpole late-summer 2024 releases, a slot the platform had historically used for high-profile star-driven action features.

Awards and Recognition

The Union did not receive major awards attention. The film operated outside the standard awards-circuit profile, with the genre register, the streaming-exclusive release model, and the mixed-to-negative critical reception precluding any meaningful awards-body recognition. The film's recognition came primarily through the Netflix platform-viewership metrics, the late-summer 2024 cultural conversation around the dual-A-list pairing, and the modest genre-press coverage of the international action-feature production model.

Critical Reception

The Union received mixed-to-negative reviews. The film holds a 23% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 95 critic reviews, with the critical consensus citing the predictable plotting, the underdeveloped buddy-romance chemistry, and the generic action-set-piece register as principal weaknesses. Metacritic recorded a score of 41 out of 100, indicating mixed or average reviews. The film did not receive a CinemaScore poll given its streaming-exclusive release.

Critics broadly praised Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry for committed lead performances within the genre limits while citing the screenplay's formulaic plotting as the principal weakness. The Hollywood Reporter's Frank Scheck wrote that the film "delivers competent action set pieces against a screenplay that never finds the buddy-romance chemistry the dual-A-list pairing was assembled to deliver." Variety's Owen Gleiberman called the film "a midrange streaming action vehicle whose Netflix-platform success will likely outpace the modest critical reception its formulaic genre engagement earns." Common reservations cited the screenplay structure, the supporting-character development, and the tonal management of the buddy-romance subplot against the espionage-thriller framework. Despite the mixed critical reception, the film performed strongly on Netflix's viewership chart through August and September 2024, illustrating the well-documented divergence between critical reception and platform engagement for star-driven streaming action features.