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Released
1997 · FILM

Breakdown

When Jeff's car breaks down in the desert and his wife vanishes after a mysterious trucker offers her a ride, he must race against time to track down the stranger and rescue her before she disappears forever.

“It could happen to you.”

Directed by
Jonathan Mostow
Written by
Jonathan Mostow, Sam Montgomery
Rated
MPA · R
Runtime
93 min
ActionCrimeDrama

Synopsis

Jeff and Amy Taylor, a married couple, are on a cross-country drive when their SUV breaks down, leaving them stranded in the New Mexico desert. A passing truck driver offers Amy a ride to a nearby café to call for help, while Jeff attempts to fix the car and heads to the café to meet her. However, Amy is not there when he arrives. Jeff tracks down the trucker, who tells the police he has never seen Jeff or his wife before. With no clear answers, Jeff begins a frantic search for Amy.

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: 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 Derek BrechinShot by Douglas MilsomeScored by Basil PoledourisDesigned by Victoria Paul

Box Office

1997 · 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

$50.2M

Budget$36.0M
Worldwide gross$50.2M
break-even (2.5×)

Opening weekend: $12.3M — 25% of its US run.

Opening week (7-day): $15.6M — 31% of its US & Canada run.

Peak 2,108 theaters

Also known as

  • Breakdown - La trappolait

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