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Released
1985 · FILM

D.A.R.Y.L.

A ten‑year‑old boy who is secretly a top‑secret military robot must outrun the agency that created him before they dismantle his only chance at life, while rogue scientists race to keep him free.

He can fly a jet, race a car and outsmart a computer. The government created him and now they want him destroyed.

Directed by
Runtime
100 min
FamilySci-Fi

Synopsis

Daryl is a 10-year-old boy who appears normal in most respects. However, his foster parents and friends are unaware that he is a government-created robot possessing superhuman reflexes and mental capabilities. His name is not coincidental—it is an acronym for Data Analyzing Robot Youth Life-form. When the organization responsible for his creation determines that the "super soldier" experiment has failed and plans to disassemble Daryl, a group of rogue scientists takes it upon themselves to help him escape.

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How many hands made this film

The scale of the collaboration

Principal cast & crew: 19

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

Shot by Frank WattsScored by Marvin HamlischDesigned by Alan Cassie

Box Office

1985 · Box office

📉 Underperformed — grossed 0.8× 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

$7.8M

Budget$10.0M
Worldwide gross$7.8M
break-even (2.5×)

Opening weekend: $2.6M 34% of its US run.

Opening week (7-day): $3.9M50% of its US & Canada run.

Peak 1,100 theaters

Also known as

  • D.A.R.Y.L. - Der Außergewöhnliche...de

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