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Poster for Air America
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Released
1990 · FILM

Air America

A down‑on‑his‑luck pilot joins a covert Southeast Asian airline to fly daring supply runs, only to discover the fleet is being used for CIA heroin smuggling and must outwit his superiors while clearing his name.

“The few. The proud. The totally insane.”

Directed by
Roger Spottiswoode
Written by
Christopher Robbins, John Eskow
Runtime
112 min
ActionComedyWar

Synopsis

*Air America* is a 1980 action comedy film directed by Roger Spottiswoode, starring Mel Gibson and Timothy Dalton. It is based on the real-life operations of Air America, the CIA's private airline that operated in Laos during the Vietnam War, transporting a wide range of cargo, including soldiers, weapons, and foodstuffs for local villagers. The film follows Billy Covington, a former pilot who, after losing his pilot's license, is recruited by the airline. He finds himself working alongside a group of eccentric pilots, dealing with his friend Gene Ryack's involvement in gun-running, and uncovering his superiors' activities in opium smuggling.

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: 23

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 John BloomShot by Roger DeakinsScored by Charles GrossDesigned by Allan Cameron

Box Office

1990 · Box office

⚖️ Fell short of break-even — grossed 1.6× 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

$57.7M

Budget$35.0M
Worldwide gross$57.7M
break-even (2.5×)

US & Canada: $31.1M — 54% of worldwide · International: $26.6M (46%)

Opening weekend: $8.1M — 26% of its US run.

Opening week (7-day): $12.2M — 39% of its US & Canada run.

Peak 1,902 theaters

Also known as

  • Air Americade
  • Air Américaes

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