We Live in Time Budget

What Is the Budget of We Live in Time?

We Live in Time carries an estimated production budget of approximately $20 million. For an A24 romantic drama anchored by two A-list leads, this figure reflects the distributor's strategy of financing character-driven stories at moderate budgets while relying on star power and festival buzz to drive returns. StudioCanal served as the primary production company, with A24 handling North American distribution rights after acquiring the film ahead of its Toronto International Film Festival premiere in September 2024.

The budget placed We Live in Time in the mid-tier range for adult dramas, well above micro-budget indie fare but far below studio tentpoles. This positioning allowed the production to secure recognizable talent, shoot on location across England, and invest in the non-linear editing structure that defines the film's storytelling approach.

Key Budget Allocation Categories

• Above-the-Line Talent: Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh commanded a significant share of the budget. Both actors were coming off major studio projects and awards campaigns, making their combined salaries the single largest line item. Director John Crowley and screenwriter Nick Payne rounded out the above-the-line costs.
• Production Design and Locations: Filming took place across London and the English countryside, requiring period-accurate set dressing to cover a decade-spanning narrative. Multiple interior and exterior locations were needed to depict different stages of the couple's relationship, from their first meeting to domestic life to hospital settings.
• Cinematography: Stuart Bentley served as director of photography, working with natural light and handheld techniques to create an intimate visual style. The non-linear structure required careful visual continuity across different time periods, demanding additional planning and lighting setups.
• Music and Score: Bryce Dessner, known for his work with The National, composed the original score. The film's emotional weight relied heavily on musical accompaniment, and Dessner's involvement added both prestige and cost to the post-production phase.
• Post-Production and Editing: The film's non-chronological structure required extensive editorial work to weave multiple timelines into a coherent emotional arc. Editor Justine Wright spent months refining the sequence order, and visual effects work was minimal but necessary for continuity and seasonal transitions.
• Marketing and Distribution: A24's marketing strategy leveraged the TIFF premiere and early awards buzz, focusing on social media campaigns and targeted theatrical rollouts rather than blanket advertising. StudioCanal handled international distribution across Europe and other territories.

How Does We Live in Time's Budget Compare to Similar Films?

We Live in Time sits in the established A24 sweet spot for prestige dramas that pair recognizable stars with auteur directors. Comparing it to similar romantic dramas and A24 releases reveals where the film lands in terms of investment and commercial performance.

• Brooklyn (2015): Budget $12M | Worldwide $83M. John Crowley's previous critical hit was produced for less but earned significantly more at the box office, largely thanks to three Oscar nominations including Best Picture. Brooklyn proved Crowley could deliver emotional period dramas that connect with wide audiences.
• Marriage Story (2019): Budget $18M | Worldwide $33M. Noah Baumbach's divorce drama for Netflix carried a comparable budget and featured similar A-list talent in Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver. Both films demonstrate that star-driven relationship stories can justify mid-range budgets through prestige positioning.
• Past Lives (2023): Budget $12M | Worldwide $43M. Celine Song's A24 debut explored love and identity across decades with a fraction of the star power. Its strong box office return on a lower budget highlights how A24 can achieve outsized results when festival buzz translates to word-of-mouth.
• The Fault in Our Stars (2014): Budget $12M | Worldwide $307M. This studio romantic drama dealing with cancer became a massive commercial hit, illustrating the ceiling for emotionally resonant stories about illness and love. We Live in Time operates in a more restrained register but draws from the same audience appetite.
• One Day (2024): Budget $15M (est.) | Worldwide $31M. Another British-set romantic drama spanning years, released in the same calendar year. The parallel release timing created natural comparisons, though We Live in Time's stronger cast and festival pedigree gave it an edge in critical reception.

We Live in Time Box Office Performance

We Live in Time earned $23,530,295 domestically and $48,506,495 worldwide against its estimated $20 million production budget. Factoring in standard marketing and distribution costs, the break-even threshold for a film at this budget level typically falls around $40 million in global grosses (roughly 2x the production budget to account for prints, advertising, and exhibitor splits).

By that measure, We Live in Time crossed its break-even point comfortably. The return on investment calculates to approximately 142%: ($48.5M worldwide gross minus $20M budget) divided by $20M budget, multiplied by 100. This does not account for P&A spending, which A24 typically keeps lean compared to major studios, or for ancillary revenue from streaming, home video, and international television licensing.

The domestic performance was driven by a platform release strategy, opening in limited release in October 2024 before expanding to wider screens as word-of-mouth and awards season interest built. A24's distribution model favors slow-burn theatrical runs over opening-weekend blitzes, and We Live in Time followed that playbook closely. International grosses of approximately $25 million were bolstered by StudioCanal's European distribution network, with the United Kingdom performing particularly well given the film's British setting and cast.

• Production Budget: $20,000,000
• Estimated P&A: approximately $14,000,000
• Total Investment: approximately $34,000,000
• Worldwide Gross: $37,182,814
• Net Return: approximately +$3,200,000
• ROI (on production budget): approximately +86%

We Live in Time Production History

The project originated with playwright Nick Payne, whose acclaimed stage work Constellations explored a romance through the lens of quantum multiverse theory. StudioCanal approached Payne to develop an original screenplay that would bring a similar non-linear approach to a feature film, this time grounding the structural ambition in a realistic love story complicated by a cancer diagnosis.

John Crowley signed on to direct based on the strength of Payne's script. Crowley had been relatively quiet since The Goldfinch underperformed in 2019, and We Live in Time represented a return to the intimate, emotionally precise filmmaking that defined Brooklyn. The casting of Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh came together in early 2023, with both actors drawn to the material's emotional demands and unconventional structure.

Principal photography took place across London and surrounding areas of England during the spring and summer of 2023. The production utilized practical locations rather than studio builds for most of the domestic scenes, lending the film a naturalistic quality that complemented its emotional honesty. Pugh and Garfield reportedly spent weeks together before filming began to build the on-screen chemistry that the non-linear structure required, since scenes from different decades of their characters' relationship would be shot out of sequence.

The editing process proved particularly intensive. The film's central conceit, jumping between the early joy of a new relationship and the later weight of a terminal diagnosis, required precise calibration to maintain emotional momentum without confusing the audience. Crowley and editor Justine Wright experimented with different scene orderings before settling on the final structure. The film was completed in time for its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2024, where it received a warm reception and immediately entered awards conversation.

Awards and Recognition

We Live in Time generated consistent awards attention throughout the 2024-2025 season, driven primarily by the lead performances. Andrew Garfield received a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role, while Florence Pugh earned nominations from multiple critics' circles for her portrayal of a woman navigating love and mortality. The film itself received recognition from the British Independent Film Awards and appeared on numerous critics' year-end lists.

At TIFF 2024, the film premiered to strong reviews and audience enthusiasm, setting the stage for its awards campaign. Bryce Dessner's score received attention from music branches of several awards bodies, and Nick Payne's screenplay was recognized for its structural ambition in adapting theatrical storytelling techniques to cinema. While the film did not break through to major Oscar nominations, its BAFTA presence and critical acclaim cemented its reputation as one of the stronger adult dramas of the year.

Critical Reception

We Live in Time holds an 81% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, reflecting broadly positive reviews that praised the lead performances while acknowledging the film's familiar thematic territory. Critics consistently highlighted the chemistry between Garfield and Pugh as the film's greatest asset, with many noting that both actors elevated material that could have felt conventional in less capable hands.

Reviewers were divided on the non-linear structure. Supporters argued that the fragmented timeline mirrored the way memory works during grief and illness, making the emotional impact more powerful than a chronological telling would allow. Detractors felt the device occasionally distanced viewers from the story's emotional core, creating intellectual distance where the material demanded immediate feeling. John Crowley's restrained direction drew praise for avoiding melodrama, though some critics felt the film could have pushed harder into its most painful moments.

The film's treatment of cancer drew particular attention. Several critics noted that We Live in Time avoided the "disease movie" cliches that plague many films in this subgenre, presenting illness as one element of a larger life rather than reducing characters to their diagnosis. Stuart Bentley's naturalistic cinematography and Dessner's understated score were frequently cited as key contributors to the film's emotional authenticity. The consensus positioned We Live in Time as a well-crafted, moving drama that succeeds on the strength of its performances even when its structural ambitions don't fully cohere.