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Released
1981 · FILM

Absence of Malice

A tenacious reporter races to expose a corrupt businessman’s lies, only to discover that publishing the truth could cost innocent lives and jeopardize her own career.

In America can a man be guilty until proven innocent?

Directed by
Written by
Runtime
116 min
DramaRomanceThriller

Synopsis

Megan Carter is a journalist who is misled into publishing a false story about Michael Gallagher, a man suspected of racketeering. Gallagher claims an alibi for the time the crime is said to have occurred, but it implicates an innocent person. After Gallagher reveals the truth to Carter and the newspaper runs the corrected story, tragic consequences unfold, compelling Carter to confront the weight of her professional responsibilities when she comes face to face with Gallagher.

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How many hands made this film

The scale of the collaboration

Principal cast & crew: 17

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 Sheldon KahnShot by Owen RoizmanScored by Dave GrusinDesigned by Terence Marsh

Box Office

1981 · Box office

Made its money back — grossed 3.4× 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

$40.7M

Budget$12.0M
Worldwide gross$40.7M
break-even (2.5×)

Also known as

  • Die Sensationsreporterinde
  • Ausencia de maliciaes
  • Absence de malicefr
  • Diritto di cronacait

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