<Tr> <Th> Budget </Th> <Td> $130--178 million </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Box office </Th> <Td> $527.8 million </Td> </Tr> <P> The Meg is a 2018 science fiction action thriller film directed by Jon Turteltaub with a screenplay by Dean Georgaris, Jon Hoeber, and Erich Hoeber, loosely based on the 1997 book Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror by Steve Alten . The film stars Jason Statham, Li Bingbing, Rainn Wilson, Ruby Rose, Winston Chao, and Cliff Curtis . In the film, it follows a group of scientists who encounter a 75 - foot - long (23 m) megalodon shark while on a rescue mission at the floor of the Pacific Ocean . </P> <P> Walt Disney Studios originally purchased the film rights to the book in the 1990s, but after several years in development hell, the rights landed at Warner Bros . The film was eventually greenlit in 2015 . Turteltaub and much of the cast joined by September 2016, and filming began the following month in New Zealand and ended in Sanya, China in January 2017 . </P>

What kind of shark is in the movie meg