

These are international multi billion dollar companies with huge distribution networks and their budgets reflect this. The biggest studios producing animated films right now are without a doubt Disney (“Frozen”), including their subsidiary Pixar (“Toy Story”), DreamWorks (“Shrek”) and the relative newcomer but sucessful Illumination Entertainment (“Minions”).
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Simpler shots such as set extensions and wire removal (digitally painting out safety lines) could be $10k or less, other full CG shots with fully animated 3D characters and environments could cost $100k or more. Hundreds of artists over several studios will work on a short effects sequence and with average shot lengths as short as 3 seconds, I think we can now appreciate the staggering amount of work and investment that is put into the visual effects that are often taken for granted in modern feature films. Of course every shot comes with its own unique challenges and scale of production involved. The Interview had a notably lower budget per shot than blockbuster average. But very roughly, it appeared the average cost per shot for these lower budget movies was between $10k-$20k. So making broad brush strokes here we can see that movie VFX for big features comes in around the $42k per shot mark. Several smaller films were also on the roster such as The Interview, Sex Tape and Aloha, but their VFX budgets were much smaller and precise shot counts could not be sourced so were omitted from the list. Movie VFX Budgets All figures are estimates and have been rounded.

In the interest of privacy, the budget source documents will not be made available or linked to via this website and the figures have been rounded. The shot counts were gleamed from interviews, ‘making of’ articles, official sites and other sources. So lets take a look at the figures in comparison to overall movie budgets. The cost of Green Lanterns VFX was more than $9 million over the original $45 million budget.ĭue to the extraordinary events late last year in the movie industry, there are now sources available online where you can find real VFX budget data for the first time ever. This cost is then often locked in place, regardless of extra shots or countless revisions.

VFX budgets are normally estimated on a calculation of the likely number of shots in a movie, often based on a best guess by reading the script and storyboard. This is a huge problem for the overall well-being of the industry and its artists and perhaps greater financial transparency could begin to remedy some of the issues. Relentless undercutting of the competition has been cited as driving the VFX industry into the ground to the point where Oscar winning facilities are going bankrupt. To try and make estimates was previously almost impossible due to the incredible level of secrecy around the bids that competing studios submit to film production companies. To anyone in the visual effects industry, budgets are a contentious issue.
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Animation budget insights across film, TV and commercials. Also check out our interactive animation price guide to calculate a ballpark figure for animated projects.
