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Official Trailer

Blue Velvet(1986)
Released
1986 · FILM

Blue Velvet

A naive college student returns home for his father's stroke only to stumble on a severed ear that leads him into the twisted world of a seductive nightclub singer and her violent, mysterious lover, forcing him to confront darkness hidden beneath suburban normalcy.

“It's a strange world, isn't it?”

Directed by
David Lynch, David Lynch Nm0000186
Written by
David Lynch, David Lynch Nm0000186
Rated
FSK · FSK 16
Runtime
120 min
CrimeDramaMystery

Synopsis

A severed human ear discovered in a field prompts a young man to investigate a case involving a beautiful and enigmatic nightclub singer and a group of psychopathic criminals who have kidnapped her child.

Credits

Actors
Editor
Production Designer
Director of Photography
Writers
Directors

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How many hands made this film

The scale of the collaboration

A crew of 179+ credited

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 Duwayne DunhamShot by Frederick ElmesScored by Angelo BadalamentiDesigned by Patricia NorrisSound by Mark Berger Nm0074281Stunts by Richard Langdon

Box Office

1986 · Box office

⚖️ Fell short of break-even — grossed 1.4× 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

$8.6M

Budget$6.0M
Worldwide gross$8.6M
break-even (2.5×)

US & Canada: $8.6M — 99% of worldwide · International: $85K (1%)

Opening weekend: $789K — 9% of its US run. It had legs — it kept earning long after opening weekend.

Opening week (7-day): $1.1M — 13% of its US & Canada run.

Peak 98 theaters

Full synopsis

Also known as

  • Blue Velvet - Verbotene Blickede
  • Terciopelo azules
  • Velluto bluit
  • (Bulgarian)Синьо кадифе
Release dates around the world4 countries · show
  • CanadaAug 30, 1986
  • United StatesSep 19, 1986
  • SpainOct 1, 1986
  • ItalyOct 23, 1986

Production & Distribution

Production companies
Amazon MGM StudiosDe Laurentiis Entertainment Group (DEG)

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