Skip to main content
Filmarian
All films
Poster for Bamboozled
Sign in to rateBe the first to rate
+ write a review
Released
2000 · FILM

Bamboozled

A desperate TV producer pitches a 21st-century minstrel show as a cynical joke, only to watch in horror as the offensive spectacle becomes a cultural phenomenon.

A Spectacular Film by Mr. Spike Lee

Directed by
Written by
Runtime
136 min
ComedyDramaMusic

Synopsis

Frustrated when network executives reject his sitcom idea, producer Pierre Delacroix pitches the worst idea he can think of in an attempt to get fired: a 21st-century minstrel show. The network not only airs it, but it becomes a smash hit.

Related titles

No curated related titles yet. Use the edit affordance to add "More from this director", "Same franchise", or "Adaptation source material" entries — every change goes through the wiki review queue.

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 Sam PollardShot by Ellen KurasScored by Terence BlanchardDesigned by Victor Kempster

Box Office

2000 · Box office

📉 Underperformed — grossed 0.2× 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

$2.5M

Budget$10.0M
Worldwide gross$2.5M
break-even (2.5×)

US & Canada: $2.3M 92% of worldwide · International: $189K (8%)

Opening weekend: $191K 8% of its US run. It had legs — it kept earning long after opening weekend.

Opening week (7-day): $264K12% of its US & Canada run.

Peak 17 theaters

Also known as

  • It’s Showtimede
  • The Very Black Showfr

Community tags

Be the first to tag this page — tags appear right away. Try a theme, capability, or subject (e.g. WWII, heist, slow burn, time travel, A24).

Help complete this page

We’re missing mpaa rating. Sign in to add what you know.