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Poster for Blue Thunder
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Released
1983 · FILM

Blue Thunder

Veteran LAPD pilot Murphy must master a high‑tech, weaponized helicopter while uncovering a shadowy plot to seize control of the city, racing against powerful forces that will stop at nothing to silence him.

He's out there…

Directed by
Runtime
110 min
ActionCrimeDrama

Synopsis

In Los Angeles, California, Officer Murphy, a veteran Metropolitan Police helicopter pilot who is dealing with severe trauma from his experiences during the Vietnam War, is paired with Lymangood, his capable new partner. Together, they are assigned to test Blue Thunder, an advanced and heavily armed experimental helicopter.

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How many hands made this film

The scale of the collaboration

Principal cast & crew: 21

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 Edward M AbromsShot by John A AlonzoScored by Arthur B RubinsteinDesigned by Sydney Z Litwack

Box Office

1983 · Box office

⚖️ Fell short of break-even — grossed 1.9× 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

$42.3M

Budget$22.0M
Worldwide gross$42.3M
break-even (2.5×)

Opening weekend: $8.3M 20% of its US run.

Opening week (7-day): $11.3M27% of its US & Canada run.

Peak 1,539 theaters

Also known as

  • Das fliegende Augede
  • El Trueno Azules
  • Tonnerre de feufr
  • Tuono bluit

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