Saw Box Office: Budgets, Grosses and the Franchise Total

The ten Saw films have grossed about $1.14 billion worldwide on combined budgets of about $107 million, according to Box Office Mojo and The Numbers. Nine of those are main films and one, Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021), is a spin-off. The figures below are in millions of US dollars, listed in release order, and the exact numbers sit in the Facts box.

Saw III is the highest grossing Saw movie at about $165 million worldwide, followed by Saw II at about $148 million and Saw IV at about $139 million. Saw II also holds the domestic record at $87 million. The nine main films alone account for about $1.10 billion, and Spiral adds roughly $41 million. Across the ten films, domestic ticket sales come to about $532 million and international sales to about $609 million.

A few figures differ between trackers. Box Office Mojo lists a $4 million budget for Saw II, while The Numbers lists $5 million. For Jigsaw (2017), distributed by Lionsgate, Box Office Mojo gives $103 million worldwide, and The Numbers lists a slightly higher $104 million. The Saw X (2023) international and worldwide figures here come from The Numbers, which put it at about $125 million worldwide. The gaps are small, and the totals above use the Box Office Mojo figures wherever the two trackers disagree.

Box office is the ticket money, not the profit. As such, a worldwide multiple of the budget is a useful way to compare the films, but it does not tell you what Lionsgate banked.

In my opinion, Saw is a hit by almost any measure of return, because every one of the ten films grossed at least twice its budget worldwide. That is the headline, but the shape of the run is more interesting than the total.

The first film is the outlier. Saw (2004) cost $1.2 million according to Box Office Mojo (TheWrap rounds it to $1 million) and grossed about $104 million, roughly 87 times its cost. Screen Daily reported that Lions Gate bought the worldwide rights before the midnight screening at Sundance, which turned out to be a very good bet. So, is Saw a low budget film? The original was, and the sequels stayed modest. No Saw film cost more than $20 million, and eight of the ten cost $13 million or less.

Was Saw III a hit or a flop? It was the biggest hit of the lot. Saw III (2006), directed by Darren Lynn Bousman, turned a $10 million budget into about $165 million worldwide, a multiple of roughly 16.5. Saw II (2005) is the better return per dollar at roughly 37 times its $4 million budget, but Saw III is the one that took the most money. Saw IV (2007) held most of that ground at about $139 million, although its domestic total slid from $80 million to $63 million. Fox News reported its opening weekend estimate at $32.1 million against $33.6 million for Saw III, so the slide was gradual.

Why did Saw VI flop? I would call it a soft landing rather than a flop. Saw VI (2009), directed by Kevin Greutert, grossed about $68 million worldwide on $11 million, which is the lowest of the nine main films but still about six times its budget. Its domestic gross of $27.7 million was roughly half of Saw V's $56.7 million. Perhaps the yearly October routine had simply worn thin by the sixth entry.

The international side tells a quieter story. From Saw III onward, international ticket sales beat domestic in every film except Spiral. Saw 3D (2010) is the clearest case, with about $88 million overseas against $46 million at home, so roughly two thirds of its $134 million came from outside the US.

Spiral is the weak spot. It had the largest budget in the series at $20 million and grossed about $41 million, a multiple of about 2. Saw X then bounced back. Set between Saw and Saw II, it earned about $125 million on $13 million, the fifth best worldwide total in the series, and its $53.6 million domestic gross is the best since Saw V. Saw XI is in development with Mike P. Nelson set to direct, according to TheWrap, and no release date has been announced. For the next chapter, see Saw 11.

Which Saw movie is the most famous? The records do not measure fame, so this one is taste. I would pick Saw (2004), because it started everything and returned the most per dollar, while Saw III is the one that sold the most tickets. If you want to see how the films stack up on quality rather than cash, Saw movies ranked is the next stop, and Saw movies in order will help you plan a marathon.