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Released
2002 · FILM

About a Boy

Will Freeman, a commitment‑phobic heir living off his father's Christmas hit royalties, pretends to be a single dad to join a support group—only to become tangled in genuine family crises that force him to choose responsibility over his carefree island life.

“Growing up has nothing to do with age.”

Directed by
Chris Weitz, Paul Weitz
Written by
Nick Hornby, Peter Hedges
Rated
MPA · PG-13
Runtime
101 min
ComedyDramaRomance
Streaming on
  • Paramount+

Synopsis

Will Freeman is a charming, carefree bachelor who avoids taking on any responsibilities. When he creates a fictional son to meet appealing single mothers, he ends up learning important life lessons from Marcus, a 12-year-old who is intelligent but socially awkward. As Will attempts to teach Marcus how to be cool, Marcus helps Will realize that it's never too late to mature.

Credits

Actors
Editor
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Director of Photography
Writers
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How many hands made this film

The scale of the collaboration

A crew of 370+ credited

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 Nick MooreShot by Remi AdefarasinScored by Badly Drawn BoyDesigned by Jim ClaySound by Chris Carpenter Nm0139303Costumes by Joanna JohnstonStunts by Graeme Crowther

Box Office

2002 · Box office

💰 Box-office hit — grossed 4.8× 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

$129.0M

Budget$27.0M
Worldwide gross$129.0M
break-even (2.5×)

US & Canada: $41.4M — 32% of worldwide · International: $87.6M (68%)

Opening weekend: $8.6M — 21% of its US run.

Opening week (7-day): $11.9M — 29% of its US & Canada run.

Peak 1,207 theaters

Full synopsis

Also known as

  • About a Boy oder: Der Tag der toten Entede
  • Pour un garçonfr
  • About a Boy - Un ragazzoit

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