# Film Budget Estimator: A Top Sheet From Your Assumptions

Source: https://storiara.com/tools/film-budget-estimator
Last updated: 2026-09-14
Author: Nick Harty, Storiara

> The film budget estimator multiplies your own assumptions (shoot days, prep weeks, fees, cast payroll, crew size and day rate, locations, equipment, meals) and applies percentages for fringes, post, insurance, and contingency. It returns an estimated total split into above the line, production, post, and other. It does not look up market or union rates.

## How to use it

Every field starts filled in for a fictional 18-day, non-union indie feature. Change them all. The groups follow the order of a [top sheet](https://storiara.com/glossary/top-sheet): schedule, above the line, production, then the percentages that sit at the bottom.

A few fields need a note:

- Cast payroll per week is the combined weekly cost of all cast, not one actor. Multiply it by cast weeks.
- Average crew day rate is one blended number across the whole crew, from PAs to department heads.
- Locations per shoot day covers fees and site costs averaged across every day.
- Camera, grip, and electric per week is a package rental figure. The tool rounds shoot weeks up, so 18 days (3.6 weeks) is billed as 4 weeks.
- Meals and craft per person per day is multiplied by crew size plus 8, to cover cast and others fed on set.
- Art, props, and wardrobe is a single total for the show.

## The arithmetic behind the total

| Line | Formula |
|---|---|
| Above the line | (writer + director + producers + cast weekly × cast weeks) × (1 + fringe %) |
| Crew labor | crew size × day rate × (shoot days + prep weeks × 5 × 0.3) |
| Production | crew labor × (1 + fringe %) + locations × days + equipment × weeks rounded up + art total + meals × (crew + 8) × days |
| Post | (above the line + production) × post % |
| Insurance and legal | (above the line + production + post) × insurance % |
| Contingency | (production + post) × contingency % |

The prep term treats five prep days a week at 30% of the full crew. In practice, department heads prep for weeks and most of the crew comes on a few days before the shoot, so 30% of everyone stands in for that mix.

## Worked example with the defaults

- Above the line: $15,000 + $25,000 + $30,000 + ($9,000 × 4) = $106,000, plus 20% fringes = $127,200
- Crew labor: 22 × $400 × (18 + 4 × 5 × 0.3) = 22 × $400 × 24 = $211,200, plus 20% fringes = $253,440
- Locations: $1,500 × 18 = $27,000
- Equipment: $9,000 × 4 weeks = $36,000
- Art, props, and wardrobe: $28,000
- Meals: $85 × 30 people × 18 days = $45,900
- Production total: $390,340
- Post: 18% of $517,540 = $93,157
- Insurance and legal: 2.5% of $610,697 = $15,267
- Contingency: 10% of ($390,340 + $93,157) = $48,350
- Estimated total: $674,314

The tool shows other plus contingency as one card, $63,617.

Crew labor with fringes is more than a third of that total, so the crew day rate and the prep assumption deserve more of your attention than the art number. Meals come to $45,900, which is more than the whole location line.

## What it leaves out

- Rates. There are no union scales, state minimums, or market day rates in the tool. Look them up with the [crew rate lookup](https://storiara.com/tools/crew-rate-lookup) or on the union's rate sheet.
- Overtime and [meal penalties](https://storiara.com/glossary/meal-penalty). A crew on 12-hour days costs more than 22 × $400. Price a real day with the [overtime calculator](https://storiara.com/tools/overtime-calculator).
- Travel, housing, and per diem for out-of-town crew.
- Stunts, VFX, music licensing, festival costs, and delivery items such as E&O insurance, which each can move a budget a long way.
- Tax incentives. A credit reduces net cost but is paid after the audit, so it doesn't lower what you need to raise up front. Run the [incentive calculator](https://storiara.com/tools/incentive-calculator) separately.
- Separate fringe rates. Real budgets fringe union and non-union labor at different percentages, and above-the-line fees paid to a loan-out company often carry no fringe at all.
- A completion bond fee or producer overhead line.

## From estimate to line items

Once the total is somewhere you can finance, move to a real budget. The [film budget template](https://storiara.com/templates/film-budget) breaks the same categories into account numbers, and [fringes](https://storiara.com/glossary/fringes) and [contingency](https://storiara.com/glossary/contingency) explain the two percentages that most often get set wrong. If you don't yet know your shoot days, start with the [shoot days estimator](https://storiara.com/tools/shoot-days-estimator).

In Storiara, the Budget module builds line items from the story's cast, crew, and asset data and a setup wizard for shoot days, prep and post weeks, and contingency, and it exports to Excel.

## Frequently asked questions

### How accurate is a film budget calculator?

Only as accurate as the inputs. This estimator multiplies the numbers you type; it has no rate data. It's useful for testing whether an idea fits a range, such as seeing what four more shoot days cost, before building a line-item budget.

### What does the default budget describe?

A fictional 18-day, non-union independent feature with 4 prep weeks and a 22-person crew at an average of $400 a day. With every default in place, the estimate comes to about $674,314.

### Why is contingency not applied to above the line?

Fees for the writer, director, producers, and cast are usually fixed by contract, so the tool applies contingency only to production and post, where overages happen. You can raise the percentage if you want more cushion.

### What are fringes in a film budget?

Fringes are the payroll costs on top of wages: employer taxes, workers' compensation, and union pension and health where it applies. The estimator applies one fringe percentage to above-the-line labor and crew labor.