Captain Phillips Budget

What is the budget of Captain Phillips?

"Captain Phillips," an action released in 2013, was directed by Paul Greengrass and stars Tom Hanks, Barkhad Abdi. The production budget was $55,000,000, placing it in the mid-budget range for action productions of its era.

Key Budget Allocation Categories

While specific budget breakdowns are not publicly available, typical cost drivers for an action production like this include:

• Stunts, Action Sequences & Visual Effects: Action films allocate a substantial portion of their budget to choreographing and executing practical stunts, pyrotechnics, and CGI-heavy sequences.
• Above-the-Line Talent (Cast & Director): A-list talent commands significant upfront fees plus backend participation.
• Production Design, Sets & Locations: Action films frequently require multiple international shooting locations, large-scale set construction, vehicle acquisitions and modifications, and specialized equipment , all of which drive production costs well above those of dialogue-driven genres.
• Development: Columbia Pictures optioned the film rights for Richard Phillips' story in May 2009, just weeks after his rescue from the Somali pirates.

What were the major cost factors in Captain Phillips?

Several factors contributed to the overall production costs of "Captain Phillips."

• Stunts: Stunts, Action Sequences & Visual Effects is one of the primary cost drivers in action productions of this scale.
• Above-the-Line Talent (Cast: Above-the-Line Talent (Cast & Director) is one of the primary cost drivers in action productions of this scale.
• Production Design: Production Design, Sets & Locations is one of the primary cost drivers in action productions of this scale.

How Does Captain Phillips's Budget Compare to Similar Films?

At $55,000,000, Captain Phillips sits in the mid-budget range. Here is how it compares to productions with a similar budget:

• 16 Blocks (2006): Budget $55,000,000, Worldwide Gross $65,664,721
• Any Given Sunday (1999): Budget $55,000,000, Worldwide Gross $100,230,832
• Forrest Gump (1994): Budget $55,000,000, Worldwide Gross $677,387,716
• Challengers (2024): Budget $55,000,000, Worldwide Gross $94,182,533
• Joker (2019): Budget $55,000,000, Worldwide Gross $1,078,958,629

The median budget for wide-release action films in the 2010s ranges from $30 to 80M for mid-budget to $150M+ for tentpoles.

Captain Phillips Box Office Performance

"Captain Phillips" earned $107,100,855 domestically and $218,791,811 worldwide at the box office. Against a production budget of $55,000,000, the film performed strongly at the box office.

A film typically needs to earn approximately twice its production budget to cover marketing and distribution costs. For "Captain Phillips," that break-even threshold was roughly $110,000,000. With worldwide earnings of $218,791,811, the film cleared that threshold comfortably.

• Production Budget: $55,000,000
• Worldwide Gross: $218,791,811
• Net Return: $163,791,811
• ROI: approximately 297.8%

At 297.8%, "Captain Phillips" earned roughly $3.98 for every $1 invested in production.

Captain Phillips Production History

Columbia Pictures optioned the film rights for Richard Phillips' story in May 2009, just weeks after his rescue from the Somali pirates. A year later in April 2010, Phillips' memoir, A Captain's Duty, was published. In March 2011, actor Tom Hanks attached himself to the project after reading a draft of the screenplay by Billy Ray.

Principal photography for Captain Phillips began on March 26, 2012. Filming took place off the coast of Malta in the Mediterranean Sea. Nine weeks were spent filming aboard Alexander Maersk, a container ship identical to Maersk Alabama.

The film score to Captain Phillips was composed by Henry Jackman. A soundtrack album for the film was released in physical forms on October 15, 2013, by Varèse Sarabande. Additional songs featured in the film include: * "Up in Here" by KOVAS * "Hilm B Hilm" by Musa Hanhan * "Wonderful Tonight" by Eric Clapton * "The End" by John Powell, a track from Greengrass's 2006 film United 93

Critical Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 93% based on 279 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Smart, powerfully acted, and incredibly intense, Captain Phillips offers filmgoers a Hollywood biopic done right , and offers Tom Hanks a showcase for yet another brilliant performance." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 82 out of 100, based on 48 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.