To All the Boys Always and Forever Budget

What Is the Budget of To All the Boys: Always and Forever (2021)?

To All the Boys: Always and Forever (2021), directed by Michael Fimognari and released by Netflix, did not have its production budget publicly disclosed. As the third and final installment in the streaming-original trilogy adapted from Jenny Han's young adult novels, the film was financed entirely by Netflix through producer Matt Kaplan's Ace Entertainment and Awesomeness Films, with no theatrical distribution deal and no obligation to file public cost reports.

Industry estimates place the production cost in the $14 million to $20 million range, consistent with the prior two films in the series and with comparable Netflix YA romances of the period. Costs included international location filming in Seoul, South Korea, and New York City, which lifted the budget above the franchise's first installment but stayed well below tentpole feature levels. Lana Condor and Noah Centineo returned for back-to-back shoots of the second and third films, a structure Netflix has consistently used to control costs across YA franchises by booking talent for consecutive productions.

Key Budget Allocation Categories

Based on the production scale and publicly available crew information, the budget was distributed across these areas:

• Above-the-Line Returning Cast: Lana Condor and Noah Centineo, both elevated to leading-actor pay tiers after the surprise success of the 2018 original, anchored the principal cast cost. Supporting players Janel Parrish, Anna Cathcart, Ross Butler, Madeleine Arthur, Emilija Baranac, and John Corbett all returned, locked in through multi-picture deals signed during the back-to-back shoot of the second and third films, which kept their per-film quotes lower than open-market negotiations would have produced.
• Director and Producer Fees: Michael Fimognari, who served as cinematographer on the first two films before being elevated to director for Always and Forever, drew a director's fee plus an additional cinematography credit on this installment. Producer Matt Kaplan of Ace Entertainment, along with executive producers from Awesomeness Films, Overbrook Entertainment, and Paramount Players' carryover involvement, also drew fees from the production.
• International Location Filming: Principal photography spanned Vancouver, British Columbia, where the bulk of the school and home interiors were shot to take advantage of Canadian production infrastructure and tax credits, plus practical location work in Seoul, South Korea, for the spring break sequence and in New York City for the senior trip and NYU campus scenes. Travel, accommodations, location fees, and local crew hires across three countries pushed the geography line well above what a single-location shoot would have required.
• Below-the-Line Crew and Equipment: Cinematography was led by Fimognari himself with Sam McCurdy stepping in for portions of the directing-heavy days. The shoot employed standard contemporary romantic comedy coverage with steadicam and crane work in Seoul's Bukchon Hanok Village and on the Brooklyn Bridge, plus a modest VFX line for a small number of digital set extensions and color-graded dream sequences.
• Music and Soundtrack: Composer Joe Wong scored the film, and Capitol Records released a 12-track soundtrack album on the same day as the film. Music licensing was a significant cost line, with songs by Ariana Grande, Camila Cabello, Marina, and HER among the licensed needle drops chosen to appeal to the franchise's teen and young adult demographic.
• Marketing and Streaming Launch: Netflix handled marketing globally through its platform tools, including a Vogue cover story with Condor, a virtual press tour built around the Valentine's-adjacent release window, and a heavy in-app trailer push to subscribers who had finished the prior two installments. Marketing for Netflix originals is rolled into platform-wide content spending rather than reported as a separate prints-and-advertising line.

How Does To All the Boys: Always and Forever's Budget Compare to Similar Films?

Without a disclosed figure, Always and Forever fits within a clear set of comparable Netflix YA romances and theatrical teen films from the same period:

• To All the Boys I've Loved Before (2018): Budget $13,000,000 (estimated) | Worldwide streaming-only. The franchise opener was made for under $15 million and became Netflix's first viral YA romance hit, establishing the lean-budget template that the sequels expanded incrementally rather than re-engineering.
• To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You (2020): Budget approximately $16,000,000 (estimated) | Worldwide streaming-only. Shot back-to-back with Always and Forever in 2019, the second installment introduced higher production values and additional location work, raising the cost baseline that the third film inherited.
• The Half of It (2020): Budget undisclosed (estimated $5,000,000 to $10,000,000) | Worldwide streaming-only. Alice Wu's Netflix YA romance starring Leah Lewis was made at a notably lower budget than the Boys films, illustrating the lower end of the streaming YA range when there are no franchise stars to pay or international locations to support.
• The Kissing Booth 2 (2020): Budget undisclosed (estimated $15,000,000 to $20,000,000) | Worldwide streaming-only. Netflix's other major teen romance franchise of the same period ran on a comparable budget profile and was likewise shot back-to-back with its sequel (The Kissing Booth 3) to consolidate costs.
• Enola Holmes (2020): Budget approximately $20,000,000 (estimated) | Worldwide streaming-only. Released the same year as P.S. I Still Love You, the Millie Bobby Brown-led mystery sits at the upper bound of the period's Netflix YA budgets and provides a useful ceiling for what the platform was willing to spend on franchise-launching young adult titles.
• Always Be My Maybe (2019): Budget undisclosed (estimated $15,000,000 to $20,000,000) | Worldwide streaming-only. Ali Wong and Randall Park's Netflix romantic comedy targeted a slightly older demographic at a similar mid-budget level, reinforcing the platform's consistent price band for original romance content during 2019 to 2021.

To All the Boys: Always and Forever Box Office Performance

To All the Boys: Always and Forever was a Netflix original. The film debuted on Netflix worldwide on February 12, 2021, with no traditional theatrical release and no reported box office gross. As is standard for Netflix originals, the film's commercial performance was measured internally through viewership metrics, subscriber retention, and franchise renewal value rather than ticket sales.

Because no public budget or theatrical revenue figures exist, a standard ROI calculation cannot be performed:

• Production Budget: not publicly disclosed (industry estimates: approximately $14,000,000 to $20,000,000)
• Estimated Prints & Advertising (P&A): not separately reported (rolled into Netflix platform marketing)
• Total Estimated Investment: not publicly disclosed
• Worldwide Gross: not applicable (streaming-only release, no theatrical run)
• Net Return: measured by Netflix internally via viewership and subscriber retention
• ROI: not calculable from public data

Without a public theatrical gross, return on investment cannot be computed using the standard $X-for-every-$1 framework. Netflix valued the film primarily for its franchise closure, with the trilogy's loyal viewership delivering a known audience on a known release date, the kind of low-volatility content that anchors a platform's romance and teen verticals.

In the weeks following release, Nielsen tracked Always and Forever as one of the most-streamed films on Netflix in the United States for its launch window, and the title remained a popular catalog draw throughout 2021 and into the years that followed. The streaming-revenue outlook for the trilogy, in the form of continued global library viewing and cross-promotion of the planned spinoff series XO Kitty on Netflix, is the primary measure of the film's enduring commercial value.

To All the Boys: Always and Forever Production History

Development on Always and Forever began while the second film, P.S. I Still Love You, was still shooting. Producer Matt Kaplan of Ace Entertainment hired screenwriter Katie Lovejoy to adapt Jenny Han's third novel, Always and Forever, Lara Jean, and elevated Michael Fimognari, the trilogy's longtime cinematographer, into the director's chair for the finale. The decision to shoot the second and third films back-to-back was made to lock in returning cast availability and consolidate crew and location costs.

Principal photography began in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, on July 15, 2019, roughly two months after the second film wrapped, with the production formally announced in August 2019. Vancouver served as the production hub for school and family-home interiors, drawing on British Columbia's mature studio infrastructure and competitive provincial and federal tax credit programs that have long made the region a default destination for Netflix YA originals.

Location work then moved to Seoul, South Korea, for Lara Jean's spring break sequence with her family, the most ambitious international shoot of the trilogy. The Seoul unit captured scenes at Gyeongbokgung Palace, Bukchon Hanok Village, Namdaemun Market, and other iconic locations, requiring coordination with Seoul Film Commission and local fixers. A New York City unit handled the senior trip sequence and NYU campus material, the dramatic engine of the third act in which Lara Jean must choose between Stanford with Peter and NYU on her own.

Casting kept the trilogy ensemble intact: Lana Condor as Lara Jean, Noah Centineo as Peter Kavinsky, Janel Parrish and Anna Cathcart as the Song-Covey sisters, Ross Butler as Trevor, Madeleine Arthur as Chris, John Corbett as Dr. Kavinsky, and Sarayu Blue as Trina Rothschild. Jeon Ho-Young joined the cast as Dae, Kitty's South Korean love interest. The production wrapped in late 2019 and went into post-production through 2020, with the release ultimately set for February 12, 2021, timed to the Valentine's Day window after pandemic-related shifts to Netflix's broader release calendar.

Awards and Recognition

To All the Boys: Always and Forever received the kind of audience-driven recognition typical of Netflix YA romances rather than traditional industry awards attention. The film and lead Lana Condor were nominated at the 2021 MTV Movie & TV Awards, the 2021 Teen Choice / People's Choice circuit, and the 2021 Kids' Choice Awards, with Condor recognized as a favorite movie actress and the film celebrated as a favorite movie of the year by teen audiences.

The trilogy as a whole was honored within Netflix's own awards programs and industry coverage as a defining example of the streaming-era YA franchise model. The film did not pursue Academy Awards consideration, was not submitted at major adult festivals, and was not part of Netflix's prestige awards strategy that year, which centered on titles such as Mank and The Trial of the Chicago 7. Coverage in Vogue, The Hollywood Reporter, and Variety treated the release as the cultural close of a franchise rather than as an awards-season contender.

Critical Reception

To All the Boys: Always and Forever received generally favorable reviews from critics, an improvement on the second film and broadly in line with the 2018 original. The film holds a 79% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 61 reviews, with an average rating of 6.7 out of 10. On Metacritic, the film scored 65 out of 100 based on 17 reviews, signaling generally favorable reception. Audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes ran higher than critic scores, consistent with the franchise's strong fan engagement.

Supporters praised Lana Condor's confident lead performance, the Seoul and New York location work, and the emotional maturity of the senior-year storyline. The New York Times called the finale satisfying and noted that the film handled the long-distance college question with more honesty than most teen romances, while Variety credited director Michael Fimognari with delivering a polished, visually generous send-off that felt grown up without losing the trilogy's signature sweetness.

Detractors argued that the third act college-decision drama felt predictable and that Noah Centineo's Peter Kavinsky was less developed than in the first installment. Critics at IndieWire and The A.V. Club found the screenplay overly schematic in its romantic obstacles and felt the international location work, while visually attractive, occasionally drifted into travelogue rather than serving character. Even less favorable reviews acknowledged that the film delivered what the trilogy's audience had been told to expect, and the closing sequence between Lara Jean and Peter was widely cited as the most affecting moment of the series.