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Released
1997 · FILM

A Life Less Ordinary

Two mischievous angels are sent to Earth to engineer a perfect romance, but their plan spirals out of control when a wealthy heiress is kidnapped by a reluctant janitor, forcing them to battle fate and their own interference to bring the destined lovers together.

“Kidnapping. Blackmail. Extortion. Karaoke. What some people will do for love.”

Directed by
Danny Boyle
Written by
John Hodge
Rated
MPA · R
Runtime
103 min
ComedyCrimeFantasy

Synopsis

Two angels, O'Reilly and Jackson, are dispatched to Earth with the mission of ensuring the success of a love connection under their supervision. They observe Celine, a spoiled wealthy woman who accidentally shoots a suitor and, due to a misunderstanding, is kidnapped by Robert, a janitor. Although Celine manages to free herself, she chooses to remain with Robert for the excitement. O'Reilly and Jackson continue to follow the situation, aiming to bring together the intended lovers.

Credits

Actors
Editor
Production Designer
Director of Photography
Writers
Director

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How many hands made this film

The scale of the collaboration

Principal cast & crew: 20

These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.

Why a floor?

This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.

Craft leads on file

Edited by Masahiro HirakuboShot by Brian TufanoScored by David ArnoldDesigned by Kave Quinn

Box Office

1997 · Box office

⚖️ Fell short of break-even — grossed 1.2× its budget

Why 2.5×?

Cinemas keep roughly half of every ticket sold, and a wide release’s marketing often costs about as much again as the film — so a movie needs to gross around 2.5× its production budget just to break even theatrically. It’s a rule of thumb, not the studio’s ledger (home video and streaming come later).

Worldwide gross

$14.6M

Budget$12.0M
Worldwide gross$14.6M
break-even (2.5×)

US & Canada: $4.4M — 30% of worldwide · International: $10.3M (70%)

Opening weekend: $2.0M — 46% of its US run. Front-loaded — most of its money arrived opening weekend.

Opening week (7-day): $2.7M — 61% of its US & Canada run.

Peak 1,207 theaters

Also known as

  • Lebe lieber ungewöhnlichde
  • Une vie moins ordinairefr
  • Una vita esageratait

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