This is Where I Leave You Budget

What Is the Budget of This Is Where I Leave You (2014)?

This Is Where I Leave You (2014), directed by Shawn Levy and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, was produced on a reported budget of $19,800,000. The film adapted Jonathan Tropper's 2009 bestselling novel of the same title, with Tropper himself writing the screenplay adaptation. Levy and his 21 Laps Entertainment partner Paula Weinstein produced the film alongside Tropper.

The $19,800,000 budget was modest for a Warner Bros. release featuring an ensemble cast of A-list comedy talent. Levy, who had built his career on family-comedy franchises Night at the Museum and Date Night, structured the budget around a tight 45-day shoot in New York and Connecticut, modest individual quotes from the ensemble cast led by Jason Bateman and Tina Fey, and a focused production-design approach that built the entire film around a single principal location (the Altman family home).

Key Budget Allocation Categories

This Is Where I Leave You's $19,800,000 budget broke down across these core production areas:

• Above-the-Line Talent: Jason Bateman (fresh off Bad Words and the Arrested Development Netflix revival), Tina Fey (in her first major dramatic role following 30 Rock), Adam Driver (post-Girls Emmy nomination), Corey Stoll (House of Cards), Jane Fonda (returning to feature work after Monster-in-Law), Rose Byrne, Connie Britton, Timothy Olyphant, Kathryn Hahn, and Dax Shepard filled out an ensemble of substantial above-the-line talent. Each cast member took quotes below their typical studio rate as part of the modest ensemble-prestige model.
• 45-Day Production Schedule: Director Shawn Levy structured the shoot for 45 days across August and September 2013, a tight schedule that demanded efficient coverage and limited pickup days. The compressed schedule was a key cost-control measure relative to the typical ensemble dramedy production length of 60-70 days.
• Principal House Location: Production designer Stuart Wurtzel built or dressed the Altman family home as the principal location, with most of the film's interior action taking place across the house's various rooms. The single-principal-location structure significantly reduced the need for travel days, location-permit costs, and crew transportation.
• New York/Connecticut Location Shoot: Principal photography utilized New Rochelle and Westchester County, New York, and several Connecticut suburbs for exterior shots, with the production based out of New York City for crew accommodation. The proximity to Manhattan also enabled day-of cast pickups and limited the need for extended location housing.
• Michael Giacchino Score: Composer Michael Giacchino, coming off Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) and his Academy Award-winning Up (2009), scored the film with a moderate orchestral approach. Giacchino's involvement reflected the production's prestige positioning despite the modest budget.
• Music Licensing: The soundtrack featured a curated mix of indie and singer-songwriter tracks plus original score. Music licensing for the soundtrack added moderate cost relative to the modest production budget.

How Does This Is Where I Leave You's Budget Compare to Similar Films?

At $19,800,000, This Is Where I Leave You sits in the low-mid tier of mid-2010s ensemble family dramedies. Comparable productions:

• August: Osage County (2013): Budget $25,000,000 | Worldwide $74,250,668. The Tracy Letts adaptation cost approximately 26% more and grossed roughly 80% more worldwide, illustrating how a similar ensemble-family-grief premise could outperform with stronger pedigree and awards buzz.
• The Family Stone (2005): Budget $18,000,000 | Worldwide $92,808,470. The Thomas Bezucha ensemble family Christmas dramedy cost slightly less and earned approximately twice as much worldwide.
• The Big Wedding (2013): Budget $35,000,000 | Worldwide $35,961,000. The Justin Zackham contemporaneous ensemble family wedding dramedy cost nearly twice as much and grossed less worldwide.
• Death at a Funeral (2010): Budget $21,000,000 | Worldwide $46,489,221. Neil LaBute's contemporaneous ensemble family funeral dramedy cost slightly more and grossed slightly more worldwide.
• Labor Day (2013): Budget $18,000,000 | Worldwide $19,605,613. Jason Reitman's contemporaneous prestige dramedy cost slightly less and grossed significantly less worldwide.

This Is Where I Leave You Box Office Performance

This Is Where I Leave You opened on September 19, 2014, in 2,868 theaters, earning $11,558,118 in its opening weekend and finishing third behind The Maze Runner and A Walk Among the Tombstones. The film's worldwide gross totaled $41,031,694.

Against a reported production budget of $19,800,000, the film needed approximately $50,000,000 worldwide to reach profitability when accounting for marketing and distribution costs. The financial breakdown:

• Production Budget: $19,800,000
• Estimated Prints & Advertising (P&A): approximately $20,000,000 to $30,000,000
• Total Estimated Investment: approximately $39,800,000 to $49,800,000
• Worldwide Gross: $41,031,694
• Net Return: approximately $9,000,000 loss to $1,000,000 profit (against total estimated investment)
• ROI: approximately negative 18% to 3% (against total estimated investment)

This Is Where I Leave You returned approximately $0.82 to $1.03 in worldwide theatrical revenue for every $1 invested when measured against total estimated production and marketing spend, making it a roughly break-even theatrical performer that depended on home video and cable windows for substantive profit. The domestic share of $34,288,063 against an international share of $6,743,631 reflected the film's heavy U.S. skew, with the suburban-New York Jewish-family subject matter struggling to translate to international markets.

Home video, cable, and streaming windows allowed Warner Bros. to comfortably recoup the modest production budget, with subsequent steady catalog viewing on HBO, Netflix, and other platforms driving moderate long-tail profitability. The film never spawned franchise or follow-up consideration, and director Shawn Levy continued his commercial trajectory through Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (2014) and his subsequent move into prestige producing with Stranger Things and Free Guy.

This Is Where I Leave You Production History

Development on This Is Where I Leave You began in 2010, shortly after Jonathan Tropper's novel hit the New York Times bestseller list. Tropper himself was hired by Warner Bros. to write the screenplay adaptation, which he developed across 2010 and 2011 alongside producer Paula Weinstein and director Shawn Levy. The project was originally announced with multiple director attachments including David Frankel and Jonathan Demme before Levy took the assignment in 2012.

Casting began in earnest in late 2012, with Jason Bateman attached as the lead Judd Altman early in the process. The ensemble was assembled across the first half of 2013, with Tina Fey joining as sister Wendy, Adam Driver as youngest brother Phillip, Corey Stoll as eldest brother Paul, Jane Fonda as matriarch Hillary Altman, Rose Byrne as Judd's old flame Penny, Connie Britton as Wendy's husband Wade, Timothy Olyphant as Wendy's old flame Horry, Kathryn Hahn as Paul's wife Annie, and Dax Shepard as Wade's antagonist.

Principal photography ran from August through September 2013 in New Rochelle and Westchester County, New York, and several Connecticut suburbs. The compressed 45-day shooting schedule demanded efficient coverage and limited pickup days, with director Shawn Levy emphasizing single-take performance rather than multiple coverage angles to maximize the ensemble's chemistry. The principal house location served as the primary interior setting for the bulk of the film's running time.

Post-production extended through summer 2014, with composer Michael Giacchino delivering the orchestral score and editor Dean Zimmerman cutting the ensemble-heavy material across several months of fine cutting. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2014, and went into wide U.S. release on September 19, 2014.

Awards and Recognition

This Is Where I Leave You received limited awards recognition. The film did not feature significantly in major industry awards conversations, with the 2014 awards season dominated by Birdman, Boyhood, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Whiplash, and The Imitation Game.

Jane Fonda received attention as a potential supporting actress contender in early-season awards buzz but did not receive nominations at the Academy Awards, Golden Globes, BAFTAs, or Critics' Choice Awards. Adam Driver's performance as Phillip was noted in subsequent retrospectives as an early indicator of his substantial subsequent career trajectory, but the film's overall awards profile reflected its modest critical and commercial performance.

Critical Reception

This Is Where I Leave You received mixed reviews. The film holds a 42% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 184 critic reviews, with the critical consensus calling it earnest but tonally muddled. On Metacritic, the film scored 44 out of 100, indicating mixed or average reviews. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a B+, indicating moderate enthusiasm.

The New York Times' A.O. Scott called the film "likable but undisciplined," praising the ensemble while criticizing the screenplay's tendency to abandon serious threads in favor of comic set pieces. Variety's Andrew Barker wrote that the film "never quite finds the proper balance between its broad comedy and prestige-drama aspirations." The Guardian's Jordan Hoffman gave the film three stars out of five, praising Jason Bateman's lead performance and Jane Fonda's supporting work.

Critics broadly praised the ensemble cast, the believable family chemistry, Michael Giacchino's score, and several individual scenes (particularly the synagogue meltdown and the rooftop conversation between Bateman and Driver), but objected to the screenplay's pacing and the perceived adherence to genre conventions rather than the source novel's tonal nuance. The film's reputation has settled as a watchable but ultimately unspectacular entry in the early-2010s ensemble-family-dramedy cycle.