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Released
1998 · FILM

Desperate Measures

A desperate San Francisco cop must track down a dangerous convicted killer—the only hope of saving his dying son—before the fugitive turns the hospital into a deadly escape battleground.

Desperate times call for. . .

Directed by
Written by
Runtime
100 min
ActionCrimeDrama

Synopsis

San Francisco police officer Frank Connor is urgently searching for a compatible bone marrow donor for his critically ill son. The only possible match is Peter McCabe, a convicted multiple murderer, who views a visit to the hospital as the ideal chance to gain his most desired prize: freedom. As McCabe escapes, the hospital turns into a tense battleground, forcing Connor to both pursue and, paradoxically, protect the dangerous fugitive who remains his son's only hope for survival.

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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 Lee PercyShot by Luciano TovoliScored by Trevor JonesDesigned by Geoffrey Kirkland

Box Office

1998 · Box office

📉 Underperformed — grossed 0.3× 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

$13.8M

Budget$50.0M
Worldwide gross$13.8M
break-even (2.5×)

Opening weekend: $5.8M 42% of its US run. Front-loaded — most of its money arrived opening weekend.

Opening week (7-day): $7.2M52% of its US & Canada run.

Peak 1,963 theaters

Also known as

  • Desperate Measures - Jede Stunde zähltde
  • Medidas desesperadases
  • L'Enjeufr
  • Soluzione estremait

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