Honest comparison · updated July 2026
Movie Magic Budgeting and Movie Magic Scheduling (Entertainment Partners) are the studio-world standard. Union shows, completion bonds, and studio finance departments speak Movie Magic, and if your production must hand deliverables to people who expect those files, that expectation is a real requirement.
They are also two separate subscriptions that only do budgeting and scheduling. Production Slate covers both — including Movie Magic-style globals and fringes formula cells and Movie Magic Budget file import — plus the call sheets, crew, script breakdown, and equipment tracking around them, at a fraction of the per-seat cost.
Free plan (2 projects, core features) · Pro $12/mo or $99/yr · Team flat $20 per user/mo, no base fee, no minimums. Freelancers invited to a single project are always free.
Movie Magic Budgeting is $42.99/month per seat ($299.88/year); Movie Magic Scheduling is priced similarly — each a separate subscription (EP Store, July 2026). Both together run roughly $86/month per person. Their pricing →
| Team size | Production Slate | Movie Magic |
|---|---|---|
| 1 person | $12/mo (Pro — budgeting AND scheduling) | ~$86/mo for both apps |
| 5 people | $100/mo (Team) | ~$430/mo for both apps |
| 15 people | $300/mo (Team) | ~$1,290/mo for both apps |
| Feature | Production Slate | Movie Magic |
|---|---|---|
| Budgeting with globals & fringes formula cells | ||
| Estimates vs actuals with per-day itemised entries | Estimates-focused | |
| Stripboard scheduling + Day-out-of-Days | ||
| Movie Magic Budget file import | — | |
| Industry-standard studio/union file format | Exports Excel/CSV/PDF | |
| Call sheets with email delivery + read receipts | — | |
| Script import (FDX + Fountain) + breakdown tagging | Scheduling imports FDX | |
| Crew management + payroll hours | — | |
| Equipment, locations, shot lists, art dept | — | |
| Works in the browser, phone included | Desktop-first | |
| Free tier to start | — | |
| One subscription for budget + schedule + everything else | Two separate subscriptions |
Feature availability as of July 2026; both products ship regularly. Spot an error? Email hello@prodslate.com and we'll fix it.
Export your budget from Movie Magic Budgeting (File → Export → XML Advanced) and import it into Production Slate — categories, accounts, and line items map automatically. Globals and fringes rebuild with our formula cells (a Team feature).
Schedules rebuild quickly from a script import: scenes come in from your .fdx, then drag them onto the stripboard. Most productions are fully moved in an afternoon.
Yes. Movie Magic Budgeting exports (XML Advanced format) import directly, alongside Excel and CSV budgets. Categories and line items map automatically.
Yes — named globals usable in quantity/rate formula cells and fringe definitions applied per line, in the Movie Magic style. Globals & Fringes editing is included in Team plans.
Movie Magic Budgeting and Scheduling are separate subscriptions at $42.99/month each per seat (EP Store, July 2026) — about $86/month per person for both. Production Slate Pro is $12/month and includes budgeting, scheduling, call sheets, and the rest of the production stack; Team is $20 per user.
Studio and union productions whose finance partners require native Movie Magic deliverables should use Movie Magic — that requirement outweighs price. For independent work that answers to itself, the case is much weaker.
The free plan is a real plan — budgets, schedules, call sheets, and crew for 2 projects, no credit card.
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