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Poster for Blood In, Blood Out
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Released
1993 · FILM

Blood In, Blood Out

Three East L.A. half-brothers navigate the brutal crossroads of family, gang life, and the law as their paths diverge—between prison, art, and police duty—after a violent crime shatters their lives.

“An epic story of three brothers. Bound by blood. Divided by fate. Driven by destiny.”

Directed by
Taylor Hackford
Written by
Ross Thomas, Jimmy Santiago Baca
Rated
MPA · R
Runtime
190 min
BiographyCrimeDrama

Synopsis

Based on the true life experiences of poet Jimmy Santiago Baca, the film centers on half-brothers Paco and Cruz, along with their bi-racial cousin Miklo. Set in 1972, the story follows the three as members of the East L.A. gang "Vatos Locos," exploring how a violent crime and the influence of narcotics reshape their lives. Miklo is incarcerated and sent to San Quentin, where he creates a sense of "home" for himself. Cruz develops into an exceptional artist, but his life is ultimately devastated by a heroin addiction. Paco, meanwhile, becomes a police officer and finds himself at odds with his "carnal," Miklo.

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: 26

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 Fredric SteinkampShot by Gabriel BeristainScored by Bill ContiDesigned by Bruno Rubeo

Box Office

1993 · Box office

📉 Underperformed — grossed 0.1× 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

$4.5M

Budget$35.0M
Worldwide gross$4.5M
break-even (2.5×)

Opening weekend: $1.0M — 22% of its US run.

Opening week (7-day): $1.3M — 30% of its US & Canada run.

Peak 391 theaters

Also known as

  • Blood In Blood Out - Verschworen auf Leben und Todde
  • Blood In Blood Outen
  • Blood in, Blood Outes
  • Les Princes de la villefr
  • Patto di sangueit

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