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Released
2014 · FILM

Kill the Messenger

A tenacious reporter risks his career and sanity to reveal a covert CIA‑backed cocaine operation, only to become the target of a relentless smear campaign that threatens to destroy him.

“Can you keep a national secret?”

Directed by
Michael Cuesta
Written by
Peter Landesman, Gary Webb
Rated
MPA · R
Runtime
112 min
BiographyCrimeDrama

Synopsis

A reporter becomes the target of a vicious smear campaign that drives him to the point of suicide after he exposes the CIA's role in arming Contra rebels in Nicaragua and importing cocaine into California. Based on the true story of journalist Gary Webb.

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: 24

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 Brian A KatesShot by Sean BobbittScored by Nathan JohnsonDesigned by John Paino

Box Office

2014 · Box office

⚖️ Fell short of break-even — 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

$5.2M

Budget$5.0M
Worldwide gross$5.2M
break-even (2.5×)

Opening week (7-day): $1.4M

Peak 374 theaters

Also known as

  • Secret d'Étatfr
  • La regola del giocoit

Community tags

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