We Bury the Dead Budget

What Is the Budget of We Bury the Dead?

The production budget for We Bury the Dead (2026) has not been officially disclosed. The film was backed by Screen Australia, the Australian Government's federal screen production body, alongside Gramercy Park Media, Screenwest, and The Penguin Empire. Screen Australia funding typically operates in the range of AUD 1 to 5 million for feature films of this profile. Accounting for Australian government incentives, including the Location Offset and Producer Offset available to qualifying Australian productions, the net cash budget was likely in the range of AUD 4 to 8 million (approximately USD 2.5 to 5 million at prevailing exchange rates).

The film grossed $4 million worldwide, with a domestic (US) gross of $2.5 million from a theatrical run beginning January 2, 2026, distributed by Vertical Entertainment. Vertical later noted this as their highest-grossing independent theatrical opening, with $3 million earned in the opening weekend across 1,117 screens. The Australian and New Zealand release followed on February 5, 2026 through Umbrella Entertainment.

Key Budget Allocation Categories

• Daisy Ridley as Ava Newman: Ridley, globally known as Rey in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, is the film's central above-the-line draw and its most significant budget item. Ridley's participation gave the film the international star power required for US distribution through Vertical Entertainment and the global attention that generated significant advance press coverage.
• Brenton Thwaites and Mark Coles Smith: Thwaites (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Titans) plays Clay, while Mark Coles Smith, a Kimberley-born Aboriginal Australian actor known for Mystery Road: Origin, plays Riley. Smith's casting reflects a genuine commitment to Indigenous Australian representation in a film set in the aftermath of a military disaster affecting Australia.
• Albany, Western Australia Production: Principal photography ran from February 19 through March 26, 2024, over five weeks in Albany, a coastal port city in Western Australia's Great Southern region. Albany's historic harbor, surrounding wilderness, and distinctive light provided a visually distinctive and cost-effective production base relative to Sydney or Melbourne. Screenwest funding, specifically allocated for Western Australian productions, required the film to shoot in WA.
• Score: British electronic musician Clark, known for his work on the Alien: Covenant score and collaborations across experimental electronic music, composed the film's score. Clark's involvement signals the production's ambition to build a distinctive sonic atmosphere alongside the visual approach.
• Zombie Practical Effects: The film's undead design, depicting victims of an experimental weapons detonation that renders people brain-dead before reanimation, required prosthetic makeup and practical effects work. Director Zak Hilditch and cinematographer Simon Ozolins (Mystery Road) built a visual grammar for the undead that emphasized the physical aftermath of trauma over gore spectacle.

How Does We Bury the Dead's Budget Compare to Similar Films?

We Bury the Dead positions itself as art-house zombie horror in the tradition of films that use undead genre conventions to explore human grief and loss:

• Maggie (2015): Budget $4M | Worldwide $188K theatrical (VOD-focused). The Arnold Schwarzenegger zombie drama is the closest tonal predecessor: grief-centered, slow-burn, with a major star and minimal box office footprint. Ridley's film achieved meaningfully more theatrical exposure.
• Train to Busan (2016): Budget $8.5M | Worldwide $99M. The Korean zombie action-drama demonstrates the commercial upside for zombie films that commit to genre while maintaining emotional depth. We Bury the Dead operates at a similar thematic register but smaller budget and significantly smaller box office.
• A Quiet Place (2018): Budget $17M | Worldwide $340M. The survival horror film with an emotional core is the aspirational commercial peer: small studio horror built on grief and family bonds that crossed into mainstream success. We Bury the Dead did not achieve similar crossover.
• The Rover (2014): Budget $9M | Worldwide $2.7M. David Michôd's Australian post-apocalyptic film with Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson is a structural analog: Australian-backed, international cast, art-house genre, modest box office.

We Bury the Dead Box Office Performance

We Bury the Dead opened in US theatrical release on January 2, 2026, distributed by Vertical Entertainment. The film grossed $3 million in its opening weekend across 1,117 screens, marking Vertical's highest indie opening to date. The US theatrical run concluded with $2.5 million domestic gross. A streaming release followed on February 3, 2026. The Australian and New Zealand release through Umbrella Entertainment launched February 5, 2026. Worldwide gross reached approximately $4 million.

For a film backed primarily by Screen Australia and Screenwest with an Australian production budget, $4 million worldwide is a credible theatrical outcome, particularly given the 88 percent Rotten Tomatoes score. The film's critical acclaim significantly exceeded its commercial performance, consistent with the limited theatrical footprint of prestige horror releases without major studio marketing support.

• Production Budget: Undisclosed (estimated AUD 4-8M / USD 2.5-5M)
• Estimated P&A: $2-4M (Vertical Entertainment limited theatrical)
• Opening Weekend (US): $3M (1,117 screens)
• US Theatrical Gross: $2.5M
• Worldwide Gross: Approximately $4M
• ROI on Production Budget: Varies by window; theatrically below break-even

We Bury the Dead earned roughly $1.60 for every $1 of its estimated USD production budget in worldwide theatrical gross alone, not accounting for P&A. The real profitability picture includes Screen Australia and Screenwest funding that does not require commercial return (government cultural production investment), and international streaming licensing revenue from the Umbrella and Vertical deals, which will accumulate over multiple years.

We Bury the Dead Production History

We Bury the Dead was written and directed by Zak Hilditch, an Australian filmmaker known for the Stephen King adaptation 1922 (Netflix, 2017) and the thriller These Final Hours (2013). Hilditch developed the project through Campfire Studios and Gramercy Park Media, with Screen Australia and Screenwest as the primary Australian government funders. The Penguin Empire served as a production entity alongside the institutional backers.

Principal photography ran from February 19 through March 26, 2024, over 35 days in Albany, Western Australia. Albany's Great Southern coastline, historic harbor, and surrounding agricultural land provided the visual vocabulary for a film set in the aftermath of a US military disaster that destroys most of Hobart, Tasmania, sending some victims into a brain-dead reanimated state. The film's narrative follows Ava Newman, an American physiotherapist, who joins an Australian military unit retrieving bodies while secretly searching for her missing husband Mitch.

Daisy Ridley was cast as Ava, bringing international profile to a project that needed US distribution to reach its potential audience. Ridley's post-Star Wars career has focused on building an independent filmmaking identity distinct from the blockbuster franchise, including Sometimes I Think About Dying (2023) and Young Woman and the Sea (2024). We Bury the Dead continues that trajectory toward character-driven genre work.

The film had its world premiere at the Adelaide Film Festival on November 1, 2024, and its North American premiere at SXSW in March 2025, earning the critical attention that supported the Vertical Entertainment US acquisition. The January 2, 2026 US theatrical release on 1,117 screens represented a meaningful wide release for an independent Australian horror drama, resulting in Vertical's highest-ever indie opening weekend.

Awards and Recognition

We Bury the Dead was nominated for Best Feature Film at the 2025 Sitges Film Festival, the prestigious Barcelona-based genre and fantasy film festival. A Sitges nomination is a significant recognition for international horror and genre cinema, validating Hilditch's film as a serious contribution to the zombie genre beyond commercial entertainment.

The film's 88 percent Rotten Tomatoes score placed it among the best-reviewed horror releases of 2025-2026, but its modest box office footprint and independent distribution limited its presence in mainstream awards conversation. The SXSW premiere in March 2025 generated critical buzz that sustained through the January 2026 theatrical release, making it an early contender for genre awards within specialty festival circuits.

Critical Reception

We Bury the Dead earned an 88 percent Tomatometer rating from 115 critics, one of the highest scores for a zombie film in recent memory, and a Metacritic score of 61 out of 100 from 16 reviewers, indicating "generally favorable" reception. Audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes tracked at 46 percent from over 500 verified ratings, a striking gap between critical enthusiasm and audience satisfaction.

The Rotten Tomatoes critical consensus described the film as "anchored by Daisy Ridley's magnetic performance and a grimly inventive premise," using "familiar zombie tropes as a framework to deliver a beautifully shot, emotionally resonant meditation on loss and grief." Critics consistently praised Simon Ozolins's cinematography, which used the distinctive coastal light and landscape of Albany, Western Australia to create a mood of muted mourning distinct from the gray-green post-apocalyptic palette common in zombie cinema.

The gap between the 88 percent critic score and 46 percent audience score reflects the film's deliberate prioritization of atmosphere and emotional texture over action and genre mechanics. Critics who appreciated the film's restraint found the 95-minute runtime a model of emotional discipline; audience members seeking a more conventional zombie horror experience found the pacing "tedious" and the threat level underwhelming relative to the zombie premise's implied action potential. Daisy Ridley's performance was consistently praised across both critical and audience responses, with even negative audience reviews typically noting her as the film's primary asset.