Budget Template: Feature Film

What's in this feature film budget template

This free feature film budget template opens in Saturation as a working budget, not a static spreadsheet. It uses the top sheet layout that financiers, completion guarantors and production accountants expect: above-the-line, production, post-production and other costs, each with its own subtotal and a grand total at the bottom.

That is 26 accounts and 79 starter line items. Production Staff, for example, already holds the unit production manager, location manager, assistant directors, script supervisor and office PAs. Add, rename or nest lines as your script breakdown fills in; the account totals and the top sheet update as you type.

When to use this template

Use it for a narrative feature that needs a full top sheet for investors, a sales agent or a completion guarantor. For a smaller shoot, start from the Indie Film or Short Film template. For a union feature with cast broken out in more detail, use SAG Feature Film.

If you are hiring SAG-AFTRA performers on a feature under $2 million, check which low budget agreement your budget falls under before you set cast rates:

Rates rise each year, so confirm them on SAGindie when you lock the budget.

How to fill out a feature film budget

1. Break down the script first. Cast days, locations, company moves, stunts and VFX shots drive most of the lines that follow.
2. Fill in above the line. Rights and screenplay, producers, director and principal cast, using the deal terms you already know.
3. Build production from the schedule. Enter crew and rentals with quantity, rate and multiplier (days or weeks). The account and the top sheet total themselves.
4. Apply fringes, not flat amounts. Payroll taxes and union pension and health belong on the labor lines as fringes, so they move when rates or days change.
5. Price post with your vendors. Editorial weeks, music, sound and deliverables.
6. Add contingency and review the top sheet. Add a contingency line sized to your financier's or bond company's requirement, then check the above-the-line and below-the-line split before you send it out.

From budget to actuals

Once the budget is approved, the same template becomes your cost tracking. Every line carries Estimate, Actual and Variance columns, so spending lands on the account it belongs to and overages show up on the line instead of at wrap. When someone needs a file, a paid plan exports the full budget, top sheet included, to Excel (XLSX), CSV or PDF.

New to budgeting? Read how to create a film budget for a line-by-line walkthrough and how to read a film budget top sheet.