How Much Money Do You Really Need to

Make Your Next Feature Film?

If you’re thinking about making your first feature film, you’ve probably asked yourself one question:

How much money do I need?

Over the years, I’ve worked with filmmakers who believed they needed anywhere from $2 million to $25 million to make their first feature—often based on fantasy, comparison, or a budget created without any real-world fundraising context. The result? Years spent trying to raise money they could never realistically raise, and no film to show for it.

At Filmmaker Success, we start with a different—and far more important—question:

How much money can you actually raise?

Your first feature is not about big budgets or industry validation. It’s about making a smart, strategic film that you can finance, complete, and use as your true entry point

into the film industry.

This post breaks down how first-time filmmakers should really think about budgets, fundraising, mindset, and access to money—and why microbudget films have launched more sustainable careers than unrealistically financed ones.

👉 Read the full post below to learn how to budget and fund your first feature the right way.

How Much Money Do I NEED to

Make My (First) Feature?

If you have become open to the idea of making your own feature film, you will of course need some money. Well how much?

Over the years, I have met filmmakers who tell me with a straight face - and a boatload of sincerity - that they need $2,000,000, $6,000,000 and most recently I heard, $25,000,000 to make their first feature. Last week, I met a highly successful professional who had spent 7 years trying to raise $69,000,000 for her first movie.

Often, when a first time feature filmmaker is telling me - with a straight face - that they need $2M, $5M, or so to make their film, they cannot see a problem. When I tell them some of these larger numbers, however, they see the nature of the problem. “$69M?” That’s crazy! Well so is $2M.

Often when I ask them how they came up with these numbers, half the time they really don’t know. The numbers are based on complete fantasy.

The other half of the time, filmmakers tell me that they “hired a line producer,” a professional who made the budget for them. Often they paid this professional for this budget. Sounds smart, right? I actually received an email yesterday from someone who teaches filmmakers and his email taught the concept of hiring a line producer to create a budget for your script. But is this really the answer?

Let me give you an example I hope will show you why line producers are not the answer. Last year I worked on developing a project with a client for a series for PBS. The team had hired a great line producer to create a budget for the series. The line producer is extremely experienced and knows both microbudget, independent and studio projects. Sounds like the perfect person to create the budget. Right? The budget came out to $3,000,000 an episode. What? I hope you are gasping and clutching your pearls. A PBS show at $3,000,000 per episode? The only problem with this is that PBS doesn’t make shows at $3M per episode. (This recently changed, and In 2022, PBS released perhaps their best series ever - IMHO - Around The World In 80 Days starring David Tennant. It’s a period piece set in the 19th century and also goes around the world on historic trains, ships, camels and boats. As it turns out, PBS really did spend $3M per episode on this project.)

Our series was a children’s science education show and a really fun one at that! But PBS simply doesn’t generally work at these kinds of budgets. Even when they have shows that last for season after season and the budgets go up and up, it is incredibly rare that they would reach these kinds of numbers. But as with all entertainment companies that commission originals for their platforms, PBS is no different. PBS likes to work with producers they know, like and trust. They are less likely to work with a new producer they have never worked with, and they are certainly not going to start with someone new at the highest level budget they have ever spent.

I am hoping this example will explain to you the futility of hiring a line producer to create a budget for your script without any parameters about how much you can spend.

What do you mean, “How much can I spend?”

It’s as though no filmmakers have ever asked themselves this question. So let’s start asking it.

Pretty much 99% of all filmmakers will tell you without batting an eyelid, how many millions they need to make their first feature. About how they know this number because they paid a line producer. But you will never hear a filmmaker talk about either of these two questions: 1) How much money can I raise? Or 2) How much is my film worth?

This is the Most Important Question - HOW MUCH MONEY CAN YOU RAISE?

If you only take away one thing out of this book it is this: How much money can you raise? Before we start talking about needing $25M to make our first feature, my question would be: “Can you raise that?” I can very easily answer this question for you: You can’t. Spending even 5 minutes on this venture is a complete and utter waste of those precious 5 minutes. Why? Because there’s no such thing as a person who is going to risk $25M on a filmmaker who has never made a feature film. End of story.

After all, imagine if we were not talking about film. What if we were talking about starting an ice cream shop? If it was my first attempt at selling ice cream, do you imagine you would give me $25M? Of course not. It’s just common sense. And yet, filmmakers seem to set aside their common sense when it comes to talking about how much money they need to make their first feature film. If there was one sure fire way to make sure you cannot raise money to make your film, it’s to show people that you so obviously do not know what you’re talking about.

I cannot fully explain why filmmakers make up these huge budgets and then actually take their time and energy trying to raise these un-raisable amounts. But I suspect it’s because of what I’ve talked about before, that even on the rare occasions that producers who have successfully raised money to make their films are interviewed or invited to speak on panels, that they are already far down the road in their careers, and very naturally they speak about the business model they have used to make their most recent film.

Remember, when you hear producers being interviewed, they are probably speaking about their latest film, which may well be the 4th, 5th or 16th feature film. No one is interested in interviewing producers, so they only get to speak publicly once they are already successful. So, ask yourself the question, how much money did they raise to make their first feature? Their second feature? What was the business model they used to make that first and second feature? If you can even find out this information - which will take some research but will be hard to find - you can also speculate on how this producer started out and compare that to where they are now.

Once you have an idea of where the producer started, you can now gather whatever information you can and imitate what that producer did to get started rather than what they are doing today now that they are already successful.

There is another, darker reason that filmmakers talk about budgets they can never raise: it gets them off the hook from ever having to make a film. They can pretend to be filmmakers but never actually go through the extraordinary challenge that is actually making a feature. That’s deep.

What level of access to financial resources do you have?

Now I’m going to break some very BAD news to you. When you are making your first feature film you are going to have much less access to finance than you will have when you are on your 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th films. What my interest is, is in making sure that you make it through from the 1st to that 2nd, to that 5th feature film.

When you are making your first film, you may not have too much access to finance beyond your friends and family. And you may look at your friends and family in great disappointment because - OOOPS! - there’s certainly no money there! And hey, you are probably correct about that. Now just to clarify, I haven’t had any rich clients - so far. I’ve had clients who were not surrounded by money, but they too have been able to access some modest resources by presenting a strong case for making a film that will make money, being able to articulate their ask with clarity and confidence, and by moving through their fears and internal resistance and speaking to people about money anyway.

Getting to this place is the first step in raising money. Whether you know people with money or not, if you cannot present your film and your request for money in a clear and concise way, you will not be able to raise money even if all your friends actually are rich. My suggestion is that you prepare yourself with exquisite attention by becoming that business person - rather than solely a storyteller - who is willing to raise whatever money you can and make that first feature. It won’t be nearly enough. It won’t be anything like as much as you imagine you need. It won’t be anything like as much as you think you deserve. But if you can raise a minimum of $40,000, you can make a microbudget, no name feature. British horror director, Ben Wheatley, says $30,000. I say $40,000. John Sayles says $40,000.

Many of my clients making microbudget features aim to raise $100,000. Many of them aim for that and are disappointed when they fall short. But they also know that with that minimum amount they can do it. Some of my clients have aimed for $100,000, and instead raised $67,000, $60,000, $80,000, $23,000, $40,000 and have still been able to complete their features AND make a film with high production values AND get distribution. Many of my clients have aimed to raise $100,000 and raised more. I have clients who have raised $200,000, $300,000, $500,000. In 2024, I have clients making films at $2M - $5M.

I strongly believe that the project that creates entry into the film industry, the entertainment industry, is the feature film. I also believe that before you have made that first feature film, there’s not much point in talking to people in the industry. While I am a huge proponent of networking, most people make the mistake of using networking to ask people for something instead of offering something. Once you have a feature film under your belt, you really have something to offer: a film in distribution, your now vast experience, a team, and a lot of knowledge about distribution and the industry as a whole. You have now distinguished yourself from the vast majority of filmmakers who have made shorts, and who will only ever have made shorts. Please don’t take this as criticism of short films. I have many, many clients who make their first and second shorts with me. A short film is a great way to start your filmmaking career and build your filmmaking and fundraising skills, network, and team. But I am clear that unless your short enters one of the majors, that short is not an entry into the industry: a feature is.

So let’s imagine that you have decided that YOU are the one to make your film. You are no longer going to wait for someone else to make your film. You are no longer going to try to “make someone believe in you and your work,” you are going to believe in yourself. YOU are going to make your film. YOU are going to raise the money you need to produce your film. YOU are going to take the money you raise to hire an excellent crew and cast to make your film. YOU are going to make a film that is professionally made and that you can be really proud of. YOU are going to make a feature that gets distribution and sets you on the path to monetize your work. Welcome to a whole new world! A world of taking responsibility for achieving your own filmmaking dreams. No matter what.

What if you don’t know how to raise money?

Frankly, no one knows how to raise money.

So don’t imagine you are special. Many filmmakers hold themselves back because they believe they are supposed to know fundraising. No one knows how to raise money. Raising money is not a skill anyone was born with, that anyone was taught in school, or that most people learn working in the industry. Fundraising is a specialist skill that even those very few people who ever have done it professionally even at the highest levels, as I have, raising millions of dollars, had to learn on the job, because there is very little training of any kind to achieve this skill.

Now, if someone put me in charge of running the world, I would definitely put fundraising as a subject in high school! Learning how to raise money is a fantastic skill that will be valuable to you for your entire life. It’s a skill you can use to better yourself, your films, your businesses, your favorite causes, and more. It’s a great networking tool, a great way to market yourself and your projects. Fundraising is great! Fundraising is connection. Fundraising is community. Fundraising is fun! Hmmmmm…. I sense you don’t believe me….

So many filmmakers say to me: “I don’t know how to raise money.” Well, duh! No one knows how to raise money. Don’t feel less than. Don’t feel bad about yourself. Don’t feel inadequate. But definitely take some action to learn how to do it. And that’s why you are here reading this long-ass book. So well done you!!!!!

Fundraising consists of a set of skills and techniques that include working in several types of activities. I count 7 types of fundraising: 1) Individual donors - small; 2) Individual donors - major or Investors; 3) Government grants; 4) Other film grants; 5) Foundations; 6) Corporate Sponsorship; 7) Sales. Each of these different types of fundraising involve their own skills and techniques, their own approaches, and their own systems and styles. The reason for this is that the funder in each case is different and has priorities, values and goals that are not the same as that of other funders. We will get into more depth on all these 7 types of fundraising when we get to step 5, Chapter 6 - E - What is the E-asiest Fundraising Plan For You?

What if you don’t have access to people with money?

This is an interesting one. I don’t think that I have ever had a client who was wealthy. It is possible that wealthy filmmakers don’t need the services of a business coach and that’s why I haven’t met them. They don’t need to raise money, and if they lose money, it doesn’t matter.

It’s rare that I meet filmmakers with money, but I met a filmmaker the other day who had already spent $300,000 of her own money on a documentary and was planning on spending $300,000 more. She told me my services were too expensive even though I could probably have saved her $200,000! It was just easier for her to continue on spending her money, doing what she wanted to do, not having any idea about how much things really should cost, and not having any idea of how to get distribution. But hey! She had the money! She didn’t need to challenge her own beliefs about the “right” way to do things. People who have money never arrive at the moment most filmmakers reach: “How do I find the money I need to make my film?”

A few years ago, I had a client whose short film was accepted into the Tribeca Film Festival in New York and I went with him to the Short Filmmaker Awards Reception. While we were there, I met a filmmaker who also had a short film in the Festival. I asked him how much he had spent to make the film, a sci-fi short. “A million dollars,” he said with pride. And then he added whispering confidentially in my ear: “The budget was originally $500,000 but we went over budget!” That’s one of those conversations where I felt myself backing away involuntarily. After all, there’s crazy and then there’s really crazy. I have checked to see if this filmmaker has ever made another film. He has not. Hmmmmm….

So probably you are not independently wealthy, but perhaps you know people with money. Yaaaaay! Now we’re talking!!!! I have had clients who believed they had access to people with money and I have had clients who did not believe they had access to people with money. It is possible that they were all correct. And it’s also possible that it is the belief that runs the show and not the reality. One of the concepts that most books and teaching about fundraising will not tell you is that beliefs play a massive role in our ability to raise funding.

I suggest to my clients that in order to expand their belief system about money that they read books about money, listen to meditations on prosperity, that they join 12 step money programs such as D.A. (Debtors Anonymous) or U.A. (Underearners Anonymous), and that they read or listen to books on prosperity, abundance and growing wealth. Fundraising is part skills, part a numbers issue, and mostly mindset. Any time we do something that challenges our worldview - and fundraising always does that - we need support, whether that is from a coach, a spiritual practice, therapy, 12 steps, or any other method that will help you expand your views about money, your network, and your bank balance.

Making movies involves learning how to raise money and increasing our access to more money. As we grow as filmmakers, we also grow in our ability to raise money. One activity drives the other. And on and on. Wherever we start from, we also grow beyond. Growth means challenging our worldview and requires that we dig deep inside ourselves to facilitate that expansion by discovering a new version of ourselves.