Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 12, 2026

Negative cost

Negative cost is the net expense to produce and shoot a film, excluding such expenditures as distribution and promotion.

Last revised
Jun 12, 2026
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Negative cost is the net expense to produce and shoot a film, excluding such expenditures as distribution and promotion.1

Low-budget movies, for example The Blair Witch Project, can have promotional expenses that are much larger than the negative cost.2

The term comes from the costs up to the production of the final negative.

References

References

  1. Barnes & Noble Glossary http://video.barnesandnoble.com/search/glossary.asp?z=y&LTR=N&TRM=1007105Retrieved 2007-02-12 Archived 2009-07-31 at the Wayback Machine
  2. IMDb Explanation for differences in reported budget https://www.imdb.com/help/show_leaf?boxofficedifferentRetrieved 2007-02-12 Archived 2016-03-07 at the Wayback Machine
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