Above the Line vs. Below the Line: Film, Accounting, Marketing

The terms above the line and below the line describe a division of costs, and the meaning depends on the field. In filmmaking, above-the-line costs cover the creative talent and rights secured before cameras roll, while below-the-line costs cover the physical production and post-production work that follows. In accounting, the line separates ordinary operating results from exceptional items. In marketing, it separates mass-media advertising from targeted promotion. This article treats the film meaning first, because it governs budgeting, financing and union agreements, and then addresses the other two uses.

TL;DR

• In film, above-the-line (ATL) covers the screenwriter, director, producers, principal cast and underlying rights; below-the-line (BTL) covers the crew, equipment, locations and post-production.
• The split originated as a physical line on a budget top sheet, and it remains the standard way film budgets are organized and presented to financiers.
• In accounting, above the line means regular operating income and expenses, and below the line means exceptional or non-operating items such as interest, taxes and restructuring charges.
• In marketing, ATL means broad media advertising such as television and radio, and BTL means targeted efforts such as direct mail, trade shows and sales promotions.
• Correct classification affects union eligibility, financing conversations and the credibility of any budget presented to an outside party.

Table of Contents

• Where the terms come from
• Above the line in film
• Below the line in film
• How the two sections compare in a film budget
• Why the classification matters for unions and agreements
• Above the line and below the line in accounting
• Above the line and below the line in marketing
• What the distinction means for screenwriters and independent producers
• Our perspective on the distinction
• Preparing a script for budgeting on GREENLIGHT
• Frequently asked questions
• Sources

Where the terms come from

The distinction is a historical artifact. According to the Screen Australia industry glossary and related guidance, film budgets were once drawn up with a physical line across the top sheet, which separated creative costs from production costs. The MasterClass film career guide describes the same convention: the terms refer to the top sheet of a film budget, where individual line costs show the overall production cost.

Modern budgeting is done in spreadsheets and dedicated software, so no one draws the line by hand. The conceptual division survives because it answers a practical question that every financier, completion guarantor and union representative asks: how much of the money is committed to the creative package, and how much is needed to physically make the film.

Above the line in film

According to Wikipedia's entry on above-the-line filmmaking), the term refers to the individuals who guide and influence the creative direction, process and voice of a narrative, together with the related expenditures. The roles include the screenwriter, producers, director and principal cast. The same source lists underlying rights and development expenses incurred before principal photography within this category.

The defining feature of these costs is that they are negotiated per person or per property. A screenwriter's fee, a purchase or option price for a script or a book, a director's fee and a lead actor's salary are each the product of a deal, and each can vary widely between projects. Two films with the same shooting schedule and the same crew size can carry very different above-the-line totals depending on who is attached.

This is also the part of the budget that exists earliest. A producer assembling a package for financiers typically has an above-the-line figure well before there is a final shooting schedule, since the script, the rights and the key creative attachments are what financiers evaluate first. For a writer, the screenplay and the associated rights sit at the head of this category, and the price at which they are acquired or optioned becomes a line in a larger budget.

Below the line in film

Below-the-line costs, as the John Wells Productions glossary defines them, are all physical production costs not included in the above-the-line expenses. This covers the crew and departments that execute the production: camera, grip and electric, art department, costumes, hair and makeup, sound, production office staff, transportation and catering. It also covers equipment rental, materials, locations, permits, insurance and post-production services such as editing, visual effects, sound mixing and color grading.

The Wikipedia entry notes that film budgets are commonly structured into four sections: above-the-line, below-the-line, below-the-line post-production and other budget-specific headers. Post-production is therefore often broken out separately from the production crew, which allows a producer to see, for example, how much of the total is committed to shooting and how much to finishing.

The nature of below-the-line costs differs from that of above-the-line costs. They are driven by the schedule and the script's physical demands. A screenplay with many locations, night exteriors, stunts, period settings or visual effects raises below-the-line costs, because each of those elements requires more crew days, equipment and logistics. A script set in two interiors with a small cast lowers them. This is the reason a detailed breakdown and shooting schedule are prerequisites for an accurate below-the-line figure, whereas the above-the-line figure can be estimated from deals.

How the two sections compare in a film budget

The table below summarizes the practical differences between the two sections of a film budget.

The table simplifies. Some roles sit near the boundary, and individual productions or funding bodies may draw the line slightly differently. The Screen Australia glossary itself states that its definitions are not legal definitions and that funding agreements may define terms differently, which is a useful reminder to check the definitions used by any specific financier or agreement.

Why the classification matters for unions and agreements

Labor organizations in the industry are often described by the same terms. According to Justia's overview of film production unions, above-the-line unions represent creative individuals such as actors and directors, while below-the-line unions represent the crew, technicians and craftspeople who carry out the physical production.

Classification also has direct consequences in guild agreements. The SAG-AFTRA Ultra Low Budget Project Agreement sample is an example of a low-budget agreement under which a producer reports the production's budget, and the way costs are categorized and totaled feeds into eligibility. A project whose costs are misclassified can be treated as falling outside the intended budget tier, which may raise compensation obligations. A producer preparing a low-budget production therefore benefits from a budget in which every cost sits in the correct section and the totals reconcile.

The applicable thresholds and rates change over time and differ between agreements, so a producer should confirm current terms directly with the relevant guild before committing to a budget level. Entertainment attorneys and production accountants are the appropriate professionals for questions about whether a particular cost counts toward a particular threshold.

Above the line and below the line in accounting

Outside film, the same phrases describe the layout of an income statement. According to Investopedia, above-the-line costs are expenses incurred to produce a product or service and are listed before operating income or gross profit. For a manufacturer, these primarily comprise the cost of goods sold, which tends to vary more in the short term, while below-the-line expenses such as rent often remain constant.

Below-the-line items are treated differently. AccountingTools explains that below the line refers to income statement items separated from the results of ongoing operations, and these may include nonrecurring gains or losses, unusual charges, discontinued operations and restructuring costs. The Corporate Finance Institute similarly describes below-the-line items as income or expense items not normally incurred in a company's day-to-day operations.

The classification matters because readers of financial statements use the upper section to judge how the core business performs and the lower section to understand one-time effects. AccountingTools also cautions that management may be tempted to place ordinary operating costs below the line to make core performance look stronger. Consistent disclosure and adherence to accounting standards are the safeguards against that practice, and the same principle applies to a film budget presented to investors: a cost placed in the wrong section can mislead a reader about the true shape of the project.

Film production has a related accounting consequence. A production company that treats a film as a business must decide how to report development costs, rights acquisitions and production expenses in its own books. The film budget's ATL and BTL sections are a planning structure, whereas the income statement's lines follow accounting standards, and the two should not be assumed to map onto each other one for one. A production accountant can advise on how a specific project is recorded.

Above the line and below the line in marketing

The third usage concerns advertising. The Cambridge Dictionary defines above-the-line marketing as advertising on television, in newspapers, on the internet and similar channels, as opposed to other ways of telling people about a company or product. Above-the-line campaigns reach a mass audience, and their cost is measured largely by media buying. Below-the-line marketing involves more targeted activity such as trade shows, sales promotions, direct mail and events, which often engage consumers directly and may bypass advertising agencies.

Film marketing uses both. A theatrical release campaign may include television spots, outdoor advertising and online ads (above the line in the marketing sense) and festival screenings, press events and targeted outreach to specific communities (below the line in the marketing sense). This is a separate use of the vocabulary from the film budget's use, and a distribution budget may carry marketing costs that are classified under neither of the production budget's sections. Readers should therefore confirm which meaning a document uses before drawing conclusions from it.

What the distinction means for screenwriters and independent producers

For a screenwriter, the practical relevance is that the script influences both sections. The screenplay and its rights are above-the-line items, and the script's content determines the below-the-line figure. A script with a large number of locations, a large cast, night shoots or demanding effects will carry a higher below-the-line cost, which narrows the range of producers and financiers who can realistically take it on. Writers who understand this are better placed to evaluate which scenes carry cost and to discuss trade-offs with a producer.

For an independent producer, the distinction organizes the financing conversation. Financiers commonly want to see how much of the requested capital is committed to attached talent and rights and how much is committed to physical production. A budget with clearly separated sections, a breakdown that supports the below-the-line numbers and deal terms that support the above-the-line numbers is easier to evaluate than an undifferentiated list of expenses.

The following sequence is a reasonable order of work for a producer building a first budget. The script is broken down into scenes, locations, cast and requirements. The breakdown is converted into a shooting schedule. The schedule is used to price crew, equipment and locations, which produces the below-the-line total. Separately, the deals for the screenwriter, director, producers and principal cast, along with any rights payments, produce the above-the-line total. The two are then combined, contingency and other budget headers are added, and the result is checked against the applicable guild agreement thresholds.

The costs on each side also respond to different decisions. Above-the-line spending is reduced mostly by changing the package, for example through deferred fees or smaller attachments. Below-the-line spending is reduced mostly by changing the script or the schedule, for example by consolidating locations, trimming shooting days or simplifying effects. A producer who diagnoses which side is driving the total can choose the right lever.

Our perspective on the distinction

We regard the above-the-line and below-the-line division as a communication tool as much as an accounting one. A screenplay that is intended to be produced must eventually be expressed in both vocabularies: the creative language of story and character, and the production language of days, locations and cost. Many original screenplays stall at the point where that translation is needed, because the writer has a finished script but no breakdown, schedule or budget that a producer or financier can evaluate.

That observation shapes how GREENLIGHT is built. The platform integrates screenwriting, budgeting, scheduling, storyboarding and production planning so that a script and its production plan can be developed in the same environment, and so that a creator can see how decisions in the script affect the budget. We also state clearly that GREENLIGHT does not use AI to generate stories. Any assistance applies to production workflows under the creator's direction, and ownership and control of the story remain with the creator.

We also maintain that a budget is only as credible as its categorization. A producer or writer presenting a project to an outside party should be able to explain what sits above the line, what sits below it and why. The platform's purpose is to make that preparation more structured, while the decisions about financing, hiring and agreements remain with the creator and with qualified professionals such as attorneys and production accountants.

— Benross

Preparing a script for budgeting on GREENLIGHT

GREENLIGHT offers integrated tools for screenwriting, budgeting, scheduling, storyboarding and production planning, intended to move an original screenplay toward a production-ready project. Creators who want to develop a script and its production plan in one place can begin at the GREENLIGHT Create page. Educational material on filmmaking topics is available through the GREENLIGHT Academy.

GREENLIGHT also provides a marketplace pathway for screenplay discovery. The platform does not guarantee a sale, an option, financing or production, and the terms that apply to commercial opportunities are set out in the Industry & Marketplace Disclaimer. Creators who want to understand how their work is protected before sharing it can review the Protect Your Work page.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between above the line and below the line?

The difference depends on the field. In film, above the line covers creative talent and rights, such as the screenwriter, director, producers and principal cast, and below the line covers the physical production crew, equipment, locations and post-production. In accounting, above the line covers regular operating items, and below the line covers exceptional or non-operating items. In marketing, above the line means mass-media advertising and below the line means targeted promotion.

What are ATL and BTL in film?

ATL and BTL are abbreviations for above the line and below the line. In a film budget, ATL is the section for story rights and creative personnel, and BTL is the section for production and post-production expenses. Budgets are often further divided so that post-production is listed as its own below-the-line section.

Is a screenwriter above the line or below the line?

A screenwriter is above the line. Wikipedia's description of the category) lists the screenwriter among the roles that guide the creative direction of a film, and the related payments, including purchase or option payments for the script, are carried in the above-the-line section of the budget.

Why does the classification affect union agreements?

Guild agreements for low-budget projects depend on the reported production cost, and that cost is built from both sections of the budget. Incorrect classification can lead to a project being placed in a different tier, with different compensation requirements. Producers should confirm current thresholds with the relevant guild and consult an entertainment attorney or production accountant for specific cases.

Do above-the-line and below-the-line mean the same thing in accounting?

The underlying idea is similar, since the line separates two groups of items, but the contents differ. In accounting, the line separates ongoing operating results from nonrecurring or non-operating items, whereas in film it separates creative and rights costs from physical production costs. A film's budget sections should not be assumed to correspond to the lines of an income statement.

Sources

• Above-the-line (filmmaking), Wikipedia)
• Film Career Guide: Above the Line vs. Below the Line Jobs, MasterClass
• Glossary, John Wells Productions
• Film production unions, Justia
• SAG-AFTRA Ultra Low Budget Project Agreement (sample)
• What Are Above-the-Line Costs, Investopedia
• Below the line definition, AccountingTools
• Below the Line, Corporate Finance Institute
• Above-the-line definition, Cambridge English Dictionary

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