Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! Budget

What Is the Budget of Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! (2004)?

Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! (2004) was produced on a production budget of approximately $22,000,000. The production budget covered above-the-line talent, principal photography, post-production, visual effects, and marketing. This budget reflects industry norms for the genre and scale at the time of production.

Key Budget Allocation Categories

The production allocated funds across the following categories:

• Cast Salaries: Kate Bosworth, Topher Grace, and Josh Duhamel led the cast at pre-stardom rates, with Nathan Lane and Sean Hayes in supporting roles at higher quotes.

• Locations: Principal photography in Norfolk and Smithfield, Virginia, doubling for the West Virginia town of Frasier's Bottom, plus Los Angeles locations for the Tad Hamilton storyline.

• Production Design: Practical small-town diner and Piggly Wiggly grocery store sets dressed for the lead character's rural West Virginia world.

• Costumes: Costume designer Florence Kemper outfitted the cast for both small-town and Hollywood-glam settings.

• Music: Original score by Edward Shearmur plus a soundtrack of contemporary pop and country-adjacent licensed tracks targeted at the romcom audience.

• Marketing and Distribution: DreamWorks Pictures launched the film into a January 23 wide release with a romance-and-comedy positioned campaign.

How Does Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!'s Budget Compare to Similar Films?

Comparable productions in the same genre and era include:

• America's Sweethearts (2001). Budget $48,000,000 | Worldwide $160,800,000. A larger-budget Hollywood-celebrity romcom with a more proven star cast.

• Notting Hill (1999). Budget $42,000,000 | Worldwide $363,900,000. The template celebrity-meets-civilian romcom that Win a Date echoes.

• 13 Going on 30 (2004). Budget $37,000,000 | Worldwide $96,500,000. A 2004 romcom released three months later that vastly outperformed Win a Date.

• Just Like Heaven (2005). Budget $58,000,000 | Worldwide $102,600,000. A DreamWorks romantic comedy from one year later at three times the budget.

Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! Box Office Performance

Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! opened on January 23, 2004 in 2,706 North American theaters and earned approximately $7,000,000 in its first weekend, finishing fifth behind The Butterfly Effect, Along Came Polly, Big Fish, and Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.

• Production Budget: $22,000,000

• Estimated Prints & Advertising (P&A): approximately $25,000,000

• Total Estimated Investment: approximately $47,000,000

• Worldwide Gross: $23,600,000

• Net Return: approximately negative $23,400,000

• ROI: approximately negative 50%

For every $1 invested, DreamWorks recovered roughly $0.50 in theatrical rentals, making the film a clear box-office loss.

The film grossed $21,300,000 domestically and only $2,300,000 internationally, with the international rollout limited and tepid. DVD and cable rotation recouped a portion of the deficit but the film stands as a misfire for DreamWorks's 2004 slate.

Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! Production History

Director Robert Luketic followed his breakout Legally Blonde with this Victor Levin spec script about a small-town grocery clerk who wins a date with a Hollywood star. DreamWorks Pictures financed the film with a Lucy Fisher and Douglas Wick producing team.

Principal photography took place in spring 2003 in Norfolk and Smithfield, Virginia, with the Smithfield Piggly Wiggly grocery store dressed as the fictional Frasier's Bottom market where Kate Bosworth's character Rosalee works. Additional shooting in Los Angeles covered the Tad Hamilton storyline.

Kate Bosworth was cast off the back of Blue Crush, Topher Grace was the lead of That '70s Show, and Josh Duhamel was coming off Las Vegas. The film positioned all three actors as transitioning television and supporting players into feature lead status, though the box office result blunted that trajectory.

The film was released theatrically by DreamWorks Pictures on January 23, 2004, into a crowded post-holiday window dominated by The Butterfly Effect and the third Lord of the Rings.

Awards and Recognition

The film received a Teen Choice Award nomination for Choice Movie Chemistry for Bosworth and Grace. It picked up no other major industry recognition.

Critical Reception

Rotten Tomatoes records a 51% critics score on 132 reviews with a 60% audience score. Metacritic logged a 49 weighted score. Roger Ebert gave the film three stars and praised the script's sweetness, while Manohla Dargis in The New York Times found the premise charming but the execution lightweight. A.O. Scott described the film as agreeably old-fashioned.