Production Budget Analysis

What was the production budget for They Cloned Tyrone?

Directed by Juel Taylor, with John Boyega, Jamie Foxx, Teyonah Parris leading the cast, They Cloned Tyrone was produced by MACRO with a confirmed budget of $47,000,000, placing it in the mid-budget category for comedy films.

With a $47,000,000 budget, They Cloned Tyrone sits in the mid-range of studio releases. Marketing costs for a wide release at this level typically add $30–60 million, putting the break-even point near $117,500,000.

Budget Comparison — Similar Productions

• Arrival (2016): Budget $47,000,000 | Gross $203,388,186 → ROI: 333% • Carry-On (2024): Budget $47,000,000 | Gross N/A • Prisoners (2013): Budget $46,000,000 | Gross $122,127,446 → ROI: 165% • The Wandering Earth (2019): Budget $48,000,000 | Gross N/A • Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989): Budget $48,000,000 | Gross $474,171,806 → ROI: 888%

Key Budget Allocation Categories

▸ Talent Salaries & Producing Deals Established comedic talent can command $15–20 million per film, with top-tier stars earning even more through producing credits and backend deals. Comedy ensembles multiply this cost across several well-known performers.

▸ Production & Location Filming While comedies generally avoid the VFX costs of action films, location shooting in recognizable cities or exotic locales adds meaningful production expense.

▸ Marketing & P&A (Prints & Advertising) Comedies rely heavily on marketing to build opening-weekend momentum. Studios typically spend 50–100% of the production budget on marketing, with comedy trailers and social media campaigns being particularly expensive.

Key Production Personnel

CAST: John Boyega, Jamie Foxx, Teyonah Parris, Kiefer Sutherland, David Alan Grier Key roles: John Boyega as Fontaine; Jamie Foxx as Slick Charles; Teyonah Parris as Yo-Yo; Kiefer Sutherland as Nixon

DIRECTOR: Juel Taylor CINEMATOGRAPHY: Ken Seng MUSIC: Pierre Charles EDITING: Saira Haider PRODUCTION: MACRO, Made With Love Media FILMED IN: United States of America

Box Office Performance

Theatrical box office data is not publicly available for They Cloned Tyrone (2023). This may indicate a limited release, direct-to-streaming, or a release predating modern box office tracking.

Profitability Assessment

Insufficient publicly available data to assess profitability.

INDUSTRY IMPACT

PRODUCTION NOTES

▸ Production

Development on the film began in February 2019 when the screenplay was optioned from The Black List of popular but un-produced scripts. It was conceived as a "genre-bending" homage to the Blaxploitation films of the 1970s, featuring elements of satire, mystery, horror, science fiction, and absurdist humor.

In February 2019, it was announced that Brian Tyree Henry was in negotiations to star in the film, with Taylor set to direct under the production company MACRO Media. Later that year in October, John Boyega joined the cast, replacing Henry in the lead role, with production expected to begin in early 2020 and Netflix set to distribute. Jamie Foxx and Teyonah Parris joined the cast in September 2020.

Principal photography began in November 2020, in Atlanta, Georgia. Filming took place in Blackhall Studios and wrapped in April 2021. Taylor cited They Live, Groundhog Day, It Follows, and Napoleon Dynamite as influences on the film.

▸ Marketing & Release

On February 3, 2022, Foxx shared an image of the lead cast in-costume on the set of They Cloned Tyrone. CinemaBlend complimented the "stylish and cool" aesthetic of the costuming, writing: "To say their looks were interesting would be an understatement. Foxx’s asymmetrical high-top alone is a statement. Each character’s personality comes out through their style. Jamie Foxx personifies the high-end slick talker with his high-top, purple felt suit, and faux leather jacket. Teyonah Parris comes off as a Blaxploitation star mixed with futurism with her natural hair, faux fur yellow coat, leopard print pants, and thigh-high boots. John Boyega goes full grimy hustler in his gold tooth and striped track pants with a green hoodie and padded jacket". It featured a rendition of the Gap Band's 1982 song "You Dropped a Bomb on Me". Deadline wrote that the trailer "vibes a stylized modern yet 1970s feel". Erin Brady of /Film liked the premise and characters introduced in the trailer and remarked: "If this isn't sci-fi throwback pulp, then what is?" Jeremy Fuster of TheWrap compared the film's conspiracy-theorist plot to the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study, a government-funded medical study done on Black subjects in Tuskegee, Alabama between 1932 and 1972.

Netflix released a trio of character posters on June 12, 2023, featuring the lead cast in stylized silhouettes. Cameron Bonomolo of ComicBook.com called them "trippy", while Collider speculated that "[the] shrouding of these protagonists in mystery might be a pointed reminder to audiences of the conspiracy that needs solving in the film". An official trailer was released the following day. Lengthier in runtime, it featured a rendition of the 1984 single by Rockwell featuring Michael Jackson, "Somebody's Watching Me".

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Summary: 5 wins & 25 nominations total

Additional Recognition: !Award !Date of ceremony !Category !Recipient(s) !Result !Ref.

! scope="rowgroup" rowspan="8" |Black Reel Awards

! scope="row" |Celebration of Cinema & Television

! scope="row" |Gotham Independent Film Awards

! scope="row" rowspan="9"| NAACP Image Awards

CRITICAL RECEPTION

In her review of the film for The Hollywood Reporter, Lovia Gyarkye called They Cloned Tyrone a "compelling ride" and praised the "sleek" direction, "savvy" score and "reliably funny" cast performances. In The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw described it as an "odd, slightly baffling but likable piece of work [...] with its own peculiarly unexpected innocence and charm" and commended the "powerhouse performances" from the lead cast. Amon Warmann gave the film rating of 4 out of 5 stars in his review for Empire and called it a "stylish, laugh-out-loud blast that has something to say but doesn't sacrifice enjoyment to do so, anchored by a trio of great performances". Debiparna Chakraborty of Far Out magazine gave the film a rating of 3.5/5, writing: "While it may exhibit moments of unevenness, They Cloned Tyrone still makes for an entertaining ride with the potential to become a cult favourite."

In IndieWire, Christian Zilko gave the film a B+ grade, noting similarities between the film and Sorry to Bother You in their "genre-bending social satire" and praising the "infectious" chemistry of the lead cast. Todd McCarthy of Deadline admired the cast performances and production design, but found the film never quite reaches its full potential, summarizing: "They Cloned Tyrone seems poised to become something that, at least initially, feels fresh, a conjunction of sci-fi and blaxploitation that, 50 years after the latter genre's heyday, could possibly give it a welcome recharge, if not a full-bodied return. But, as ready as the audience might be to be transported to hitherto unvisited districts of the genre's potential universe, Tyrone never quite gets there".