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Poster for Life Stinks
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Released
1991 · FILM

Life Stinks

A wealthy, arrogant businessman bets his rival he can survive thirty days as a penniless drifter in Los Angeles, only to discover the brutal realities of homelessness and an unexpected romance along the way.

“From Fortune 500 ... to fortune's fool.”

Directed by
Mel Brooks
Written by
Mel Brooks, Ron Clark
Runtime
92 min
Comedy
Streaming on
  • MGM+

Synopsis

Goddard Bolt, an affluent and arrogant businessman embroiled in a feud with his rival Vance Crasswell over a land deal, challenges Crasswell to a bet: he will spend thirty days living penniless and anonymously on the rough streets of Los Angeles, relying solely on his wits and street smarts. However, Bolt is unprepared for the harsh realities of homelessness. Amid the struggle, he discovers a silver lining in the form of a growing romance with Molly, a former Broadway dancer who has fallen on hard times.

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 Michael MulconeryShot by Steven PosterScored by John MorrisDesigned by Peter S Larkin

Box Office

1991 · 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

$4.1M

Budget$13.0M
Worldwide gross$4.1M
break-even (2.5×)

Also known as

  • Das Leben stinkt!de
  • ¡Qué asco de vida!es
  • Chienne de viefr
  • Che vita da cani!it

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