Stop motion is quoted per second, not per minute, and that tells you most of what you need to know. Every second of finished film is twelve individually posed frames when shot on twos, or twenty-four on ones - so asking to extend a shot by three seconds means thirty-six to seventy-two more hand-posed frames. Public industry benchmarks put commercial stop motion at roughly 200 to 1,000 US dollars per finished second, or about 1,000 to 10,000 US dollars per finished minute depending on complexity, with cost per second falling on longer films because sets and puppets get amortised.
What actually drives your number: frame rate, how many characters, how many sets, camera moves, materials, and effects. The cheapest honest way to get the look is to reduce scope rather than craft - one character, one set, shot on twos, a tight twenty to thirty seconds. For comparison with other formats, see our explainer video cost and B2B video production cost breakdowns.
