Production Budget Analysis

What was the production budget for When We First Met?

Directed by Ari Sandel, with Adam Devine, Alexandra Daddario, Shelley Hennig leading the cast, When We First Met was produced by Footprint Features with a confirmed budget of $10,000,000, placing it in the low-budget category for comedy films.

At $10,000,000, When We First Met was produced on a modest budget. Lower-budget films benefit from reduced break-even thresholds, with profitability achievable at approximately $25,000,000.

Budget Comparison — Similar Productions

• By the Sea (2015): Budget $10,000,000 | Gross $3,727,746 → ROI: -63% • Eye for an Eye (2025): Budget $10,000,000 | Gross N/A • Goal! (2005): Budget $10,000,000 | Gross $27,610,873 → ROI: 176% • Phantom (2013): Budget $10,000,000 | Gross $1,197,759 → ROI: -88% • War of the Worlds (2025): Budget $10,000,000 | Gross N/A

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: Adam Devine, Alexandra Daddario, Shelley Hennig, Andrew Bachelor, Robbie Amell Key roles: Adam Devine as Noah Ashby; Alexandra Daddario as Avery Martin; Shelley Hennig as Carrie Grey; Andrew Bachelor as Max

DIRECTOR: Ari Sandel CINEMATOGRAPHY: David Hennings MUSIC: Eric V. Hachikian EDITING: Jeffrey Wolf PRODUCTION: Footprint Features, Wonderland Sound and Vision, MXN Entertainment, Long Road Film FILMED IN: United States of America

Box Office Performance

Theatrical box office data is not publicly available for When We First Met (2018). 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

In May 2016, Ari Sandel was set to direct the film from a script by John Whittington and Adam DeVine, while producers on the film are Adam Saunders of Footprint Features, Mason Novick of MXN Entertainment, with Mary Viola and McG of Wonderland Sound and Vision.

Principal photography on the film began in mid-July 2016 in New Orleans.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

No awards data currently available for this title.

CRITICAL RECEPTION

On the review-aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The critical consensus reads: "Much like its protagonist, When We First Met struggles in the cinematic 'friend zone' -- and will face a slew of viewer breakups before finding much in the way of true love." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 36 out of 100, based on six critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".

Decider writer Lea Palmeri said, "DeVine's ability to be charming and endearing shouldn't be underestimated here and you'll be rooting for him before you know it." Ravi Teja of Age of the Nerd stated that he "carries the whole movie on his shoulders with perfection."