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Poster for Man of La Mancha
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Released
1972 · FILM

Man of La Mancha

“Peter O'Toole, Sophia Loren and James Coco dream 'The Impossible Dream' in...”

Directed by
Arthur Hiller
Written by
Dale Wasserman
Runtime
132 min
DramaFantasyMusical
Streaming on
  • Prime Video

Synopsis

In the 16th century, poet, playwright and part‑time actor Miguel de Cervantes was arrested together with his manservant by the Spanish Inquisition on accusations of presenting an entertainment offensive to the Inquisition. While confined in a large dungeon, other inmates conspired against Cervantes and his servant, organizing a mock trial intended to steal or burn his belongings. To protect a manuscript he carried, Cervantes staged an unusual defense that incorporated costumes, makeup and the participation of fellow prisoners, presenting the story of Don Quixote.

Credits

Actors
Editor
Director of Photography
Writers
Director

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How many hands made this film

The scale of the collaboration

Principal cast & crew: 15

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 Robert C JonesShot by Giuseppe Rotunno

Box Office

1972 · 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

$11.5M

Budget$12.0M
Worldwide gross$11.5M
break-even (2.5×)

Also known as

  • Der Mann von La Manchade
  • El hombre de La Manchaes
  • L'Homme de la Manchefr
  • L'uomo della Manchait

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