Production is war. Many producers choose to go into "battle" without a solid, well thought out budget, a strategy for moving forward. Their productions often fall under attack, constantly on the defensive, their money under siege.

BudgetCheetah creates professional budget estimations during the critical development phase of production so that you know exactly how much you need to raise and why.

You're waiting for someone to make your movie for you.
It's tough getting an agent to read your script. It's even tougher to get it sold to a producer. But it's toughest of all for a producer to convince a studio to make it into a movie. Waiting almost never pays off. Why wait when you can get it done yourself?

A potential investor wants to know how much you need.
Don't guess. Typically, you only get one shot with an investor and they want to know that you know what you're doing. It makes you a safer bet. BudgetCheetah will make your first shot count.

You spent $799 on Movie Magic but don't know how to use it.
Expensive spreadsheets are only as good as whoever is using them. With BudgetCheetah, you get the collective wisdom of decades of production experience from our team of budget analysts and numbers that make sense.

BudgetCheetah has very strict hiring guidelines. To execute a budget for our clients, each must meet one of the following guidelines:

• Production managed on a widely distributed feature film.
• Line produced a widely distributed feature film.
• Been a production executive at a reputable feature film production company.

With BudgetCheetah, you can be sure that you're working with someone who has been there and done that.

If you're a first-time filmmaker with no "name actors" contractually attached to your movie (or other elements that bring known marketability), make it for the lowest budget possible and increase your chances of making a profit.

We offer two kinds of flat-rate budgets (both must qualify for the SAG Low Budget Agreement):

Low Budget Top Sheet Only - $279
An inexpensive addition to your business plan.

• Over thirty major department line items estimated based on your script, all tabulated on a one page, custom Movie Magic spread sheet, the industry standard. Perfect for business plans, which often only include budget top sheets.

Detailed Low Budget (under 2.5M) - $999
A full production budget, which you can use as a custom roadmap toward making your movie. You get:

• Budget Top Sheet (one page department overview of your budget).


• Detailed Budget (pages of info on where every penny will go).


• Shooting Script of your movie (with scene numbers).


• Shooting Schedule (shows how you might shoot your movie).


• Cast Day-Out-Of-Days (shows how many days you'll be paying your cast).


• Production Board Printout (your schedule at a glance).


• All files emailed to you in PDF format.

Higher budgets - email us for a tailored quote.

Follow these simple steps to order your budget:

1. Register your script for your own protection. You can do it online now with ProtectRite.


2. Fill out and print our short Request Form. This gives us a starting point for determining the parameters of your budget. Print and sign the Submission Release Agreement (it'll come up automatically after the Request Form). If there is more than one writer, each writer must print and sign. When you're finished, you'll be returned here.


3. Mail the Request Form, Submission Release Agreement, screenplay and check for the budgeting fee (if not paying by credit card) to:
   
   BudgetCheetah
   Attn: Film Budget Services
   5950 Canterbury Drive, C202
   Culver City, CA 90230-6759


4. If paying by credit card, follow this link:


5. Email your script (preferably in Final Draft format) so that we can convert it into a shooting script (with scene numbers).

We'll email you a confirmation as we receive your materials. Once we receive everything, we'll read your script and then call you for a consultation. When we're satisfied that we know what you want, we'll break the script down into a tentative shooting schedule and use it to estimate all of the line items of your budget (usually about 10 pages).

Your custom budget estimation will be emailed back to you within 3 weeks.

Questions about our film budget estimations service?
Email us with your phone number and a good time to call. We'll contact you promptly.

September's Budget Tip

Weekend Box Office