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Poster for Free Willy 3: The Rescue
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Released
1997 · FILM

Free Willy 3: The Rescue

“A new friend. A new threat. A new adventure that will capture your heart.”

Directed by
Sam Pillsbury
Written by
John Mattson, Keith Walker
Runtime
86 min
AdventureDramaFamily

Synopsis

Willy the whale returns in a new adventure, this time facing danger from illegal whalers profiting from the sushi trade. Jesse, now 16, works aboard a ship researching orcas, joined by his longtime friend Randolph and the sarcastic scientist Drew. On the whaling vessel, Captain John Wesley and his son Max are present; Max is unhappy with his father's profession but lacks the courage to express his disapproval. During the journey, Willy reconnects with Jesse.

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: 20

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 Margaret GoodspeedShot by Tobias A SchliesslerScored by Cliff EidelmanDesigned by Brent Thomas

Box Office

1997 · Box office

📉 Underperformed — grossed 0.1× 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

$3.4M

Budget$35.0M
Worldwide gross$3.4M
break-even (2.5×)

Opening weekend: $993K — 29% of its US run.

Peak 1,258 theaters

Also known as

  • Free Willy 3: Die Rettungde
  • Free Willy 3en
  • Sauvez Willy 3fr
  • Free Willy 3 - Il salvataggioit

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