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Released
1995 · FILM

Living in Oblivion

A beleaguered low‑budget director races to complete his avant‑garde movie before everything—from a diva star and an eccentric cinematographer to chaotic on‑set mishaps—derails his vision, risking both his career and sanity.

“Nick is about to discover the first rule of filmmaking: if at first you don't succeed... PANIC!”

Directed by
Tom Dicillo
Written by
Tom Dicillo
Runtime
90 min
ComedyDrama

Synopsis

Low-budget independent filmmaker Nick Reve struggles to maintain control as his production faces numerous challenges, including an unreliable actress, a domineering star, a pretentious director of photography who wears a beret, and poor catering.

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 Dana CongdonShot by Frank PrinziScored by Jim FarmerDesigned by Stephanie Carroll

Box Office

1995 · Box office

⚖️ Fell short of break-even — grossed 2.3× 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

$1.1M

Budget$500K
Worldwide gross$1.1M
break-even (2.5×)

US & Canada: $1.1M — 97% of worldwide · International: $37K (3%)

Opening weekend: $48K — 4% of its US run. It had legs — it kept earning long after opening weekend.

Opening week (7-day): $76K — 7% of its US & Canada run.

Peak 2 theaters

Also known as

  • Living in Oblivion - Total abgedrehtde
  • Total abgedreht - Living in Oblivionde
  • Living in Oblivionen
  • Ça tourne à Manhattanfr
  • Si gira a Manhattanit

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