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Poster for Bicycle Thieves
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Released
1948 · FILM

Bicycle Thieves

Desperate to secure a job and feed his growing family in post‑war Rome, a widowed laborer must outwit a ruthless bike‑thief network and an indifferent police force to recover the stolen bicycle that’s his only ticket to survival.

“The Prize Picture They Want to Censor!”

Directed by
Vittorio De Sica
Written by
Cesare Zavattini, Luigi Bartolini
Rated
MPA · NR
Color
Black & White
Runtime
89 min
Language
IT
Drama

Synopsis

Antonio, who has been unemployed, is overjoyed when he secures a job pasting posters in Rome, a city in the midst of war. On his first day, however, his bicycle—crucial for his work—is stolen. Without it, he is unable to perform his job, and his new employment is at risk unless he can recover the bicycle. With the assistance of his son, Antonio searches the city, growing increasingly desperate in his pursuit of the thief and a resolution to his predicament.

Credits

Actors
Editor
Production Designer
Director of Photography
Writers
Director

Related titles

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How many hands made this film

The scale of the collaboration

Principal cast & crew: 29

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 Eraldo Da RomaShot by Carlo MontuoriScored by Alessandro CicogniniDesigned by Antonio Traverso

Box Office

1948 · 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

$450K

Budget$133K
Worldwide gross$450K
break-even (2.5×)

Re-release box office

20091 theaters
$61K($94K today)
19994 theaters
$25K($50K today)
19981 theaters
$64K($130K today)
Total re-release
$150K

Domestic gross earned in theatrical re-release, by year · adjusted for inflation

Full synopsis

Also known as

  • Fahrraddiebede
  • Ladri di biciclettede
  • Bicycle Thievesen
  • The Bicycle Thiefen
  • Le Voleur de bicyclettefr

Companies

ProductionProduzioni De Sica

Community tags

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