The Valet Budget

What Is the Budget of The Valet (2022)?

The Valet (2022), directed by Richard Wong for 20th Century Studios and Hulu, was produced with an estimated budget in the $15,000,000 to $20,000,000 range. The film was financed as an English-and-Spanish-language remake of the 2006 French film La Doublure directed by Francis Veber. 20th Century Studios produced through its 20th Century Family and Hulu Originals labels, with Eugenio Derbez's 3Pas Studios co-producing.

Disney did not disclose the official budget, but the production scale, primary Los Angeles location footprint, mid-tier ensemble cast, and twenty-eight-day shooting schedule reported in trade press are consistent with the upper end of Hulu's original-feature spend bracket during the 2021 to 2022 streaming-expansion period.

Key Budget Allocation Categories

The Valet's estimated budget covered the following production areas:

• Above-the-Line Cast: Eugenio Derbez (Coda, Instructions Not Included) led with producer credit through 3Pas Studios. Samara Weaving (Ready or Not) played the movie star, with Max Greenfield as the billionaire, Marisol Nichols, Carmen Salinas in one of her final roles, Amaury Nolasco, and Diany Rodriguez rounding out the ensemble.
• Director and Producer Fees: Richard Wong (Come See the Paradise editor and Hulu's Plan B Entertainment collaborator) directed. Eugenio Derbez, Benjamin Odell, and Ben Odell produced through 3Pas Studios.
• Los Angeles Production Footprint: Filming across roughly twenty-eight days based in Los Angeles, with the production utilizing the California Film and Television Tax Credit Program 3.0 for qualifying spend.
• Bilingual Production Logistics: The English and Spanish dialogue required bilingual crew, dialogue coaching for the non-Spanish-speaking cast, and on-set translators for the multigenerational Latino family scenes.
• Production Design: Sets ranged from Antonio's modest East Los Angeles apartment to the Beverly Hills mansion exteriors and high-end restaurant interiors that drive the fake-romance comedy.
• Costume Design: Samara Weaving's movie-star wardrobe required a designer-clothing budget to sell the celebrity persona contrast with Antonio's blue-collar uniform.
• Score and Music: Heitor Pereira composed the score, with the soundtrack incorporating contemporary Latin music to underscore the family scenes.
• Marketing: Hulu mounted a bilingual marketing campaign with prominent placement during Hispanic Heritage Month outreach and partnerships with Latino media outlets.

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

The Valet's estimated $15 to $20 million budget aligns with streaming-original romantic comedies:

• Marry Me (2022): Budget $23,000,000 | Worldwide $50,322,915. A comparable star-vehicle romantic comedy with simultaneous theatrical-streaming release.
• Long Shot (2019): Budget $40,000,000 | Worldwide $52,977,792. A higher-budget contemporary romantic comedy comparison.
• Set It Up (2018): Budget approximately $20,000,000 | Worldwide N/A (Netflix). A direct streaming-romantic-comedy comparison.
• Plus One (2019): Budget $7,000,000 | Worldwide $129,275. A lower-budget independent romantic comedy comparison.

The Valet Box Office Performance

The Valet debuted simultaneously on Hulu in the United States and on Star+ internationally on May 20, 2022. No theatrical release accompanied the streaming launch, so no box office gross was reported.

• Production Budget: approximately $15,000,000 to $20,000,000 (not publicly confirmed)
• Estimated Prints & Advertising (P&A): approximately $8,000,000
• Total Estimated Investment: approximately $25,000,000 to $30,000,000
• Worldwide Gross: not separately reported (streaming-only release)
• Net Return: streaming subscriber metrics (not disclosed by Disney)
• ROI: measured by Hulu and Star+ in viewership and retention

Hulu reported the film as one of its top viewed originals in the weeks following release, and Disney later cited The Valet in its earnings communications as a successful bilingual programming case study. The film helped seed a strategy of bilingual Disney content that continued with Bad Bunny attached projects and additional 3Pas Studios collaborations.

Without separately reported viewership, return is measured through Hulu and Star+ retention metrics rather than box office.

The Valet Production History

Development of an English-language remake of La Doublure (2006) began at 20th Century Fox in 2008, when the studio first optioned remake rights from Gaumont. The project cycled through writers, including a Gary Goldman draft, before the Disney acquisition of Fox in 2019 reignited interest under the 20th Century Studios banner.

Eugenio Derbez attached to star and produce in 2020 through 3Pas Studios, his Mexican-American production company built with Benjamin Odell. The pair pitched the project as a vehicle for showcasing a working-class East Los Angeles Latino family alongside the original's fish-out-of-water comedy. Bob Fisher and Rob Greenberg adapted the screenplay.

Richard Wong, an Asian American director from the independent film world (Colma: The Musical), signed on in early 2021. Hulu greenlit the project for its originals slate that same spring with a release target keyed to Mother's Day weekend 2022.

Principal photography ran from May through July 2021 in and around Los Angeles, with shooting on Hollywood Boulevard, in Boyle Heights, and on soundstages. The California Film and Television Tax Credit Program 3.0 provided qualifying-spend offsets. Carmen Salinas, the legendary Mexican actress, shot her role in one of her final on-camera performances before her December 2021 death.

Post-production extended through early 2022, with bilingual sound mixing handled to preserve the natural code-switching of the family dialogue scenes.

Awards and Recognition

The Valet received Imagen Foundation Awards recognition for outstanding feature film and outstanding actor in a feature film (Eugenio Derbez), along with a National Hispanic Media Coalition award. The film was nominated at the 2023 GLAAD Media Awards in the Outstanding Film, Streaming or TV category. It did not figure in major industry award races at the Oscars, Globes, or guild ceremonies, consistent with its commercial-romantic-comedy positioning.

Critical Reception

The Valet earned a 94 percent Rotten Tomatoes score from sixty-three critics with an average rating of 7.2 out of 10 and an audience score of 89 percent. Metacritic recorded a 65 out of 100 weighted average from sixteen critics. The combination placed it among the best-reviewed romantic comedies of 2022.

Critics highlighted the chemistry between Eugenio Derbez and Samara Weaving and praised the screenplay's handling of the working-class Latino family without falling into broad-comedy stereotypes. Peter Debruge in Variety called it 'genuinely sweet' and credited Richard Wong with finding 'an authentic East L.A. center of gravity that the French original could never have approached.' Detractors noted the predictability of the central conceit. CinemaScore polling was not conducted given the streaming-only release.