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Released
2003 · FILM

Mona Lisa Smile

A progressive art professor at a prestigious 1950s women’s college battles entrenched tradition to empower her students to choose their own futures over prescribed societal roles.

“They had everything. She showed them more.”

Directed by
Mike Newell
Written by
Lawrence Konner, Mark Rosenthal
Rated
MPA · PG-13
Runtime
117 min
Drama

Synopsis

Katherine Watson, a recent graduate of UCLA, was hired in 1953 to teach art history at the prestigious all-female Wellesley College. Seeking to challenge the outdated societal norms and institutional values she perceived, Katherine encourages her traditional students, including Betty and Joan, to question the conventional roles and lives expected of them.

Credits

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Director of Photography
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Director

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How many hands made this film

The scale of the collaboration

A crew of 172+ credited

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 Mick AudsleyShot by Anastas N MichosScored by Rachel PortmanDesigned by Jane Musky

Box Office

2003 · Box office

⚖️ Fell short of break-even — grossed 2.0× 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

$141.3M

Budget$72.3M
Worldwide gross$141.3M
break-even (2.5×)

US & Canada: $63.9M — 45% of worldwide · International: $77.5M (55%)

Opening weekend: $11.5M — 18% of its US run.

Opening week (7-day): $19.9M — 31% of its US & Canada run.

Peak 2,677 theaters

Also known as

  • Mona Lisas Lächelnde
  • La sonrisa de Mona Lisaes
  • Le Sourire de Mona Lisafr

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