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Released
2004 · FILM

Exorcist: The Beginning

Father Lankester Merrin, a disillusioned priest‑archaeologist, must confront a malevolent ancient spirit unleashed by his Kenyan dig before the demon possesses the world’s most vulnerable.

“Go back to where the horror began.”

Directed by
Renny Harlin
Written by
Alexi Hawley, William Wisher
Rated
MPA · R
Runtime
114 min
HorrorMysteryThriller

Synopsis

Before Father Merrin's involvement in exorcising Regan MacNeil, he first encounters the demon Pazuzu in East Africa.

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: 22

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 Mark GoldblattShot by Vittorio StoraroScored by Trevor RabinDesigned by Stefano Maria Ortolani

Box Office

2004 · Box office

📉 Underperformed — grossed 1.0× 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

$78.0M

Budget$80.0M
Worldwide gross$78.0M
break-even (2.5×)

US & Canada: $41.8M — 54% of worldwide · International: $36.2M (46%)

Opening weekend: $18.1M — 43% of its US run. Front-loaded — most of its money arrived opening weekend.

Opening week (7-day): $24.1M — 58% of its US & Canada run.

Peak 2,803 theaters

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Also known as

  • Exorzist: Der Anfangde
  • El exorcista: el comienzoes
  • L'Exorciste : Au commencementfr
  • L'esorcista - La genesiit

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