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Monty Python

Monty Python's Life of Brian(1979)
Released
1979 · FILM

Monty Python's Life of Brian

An idealistic Judean youth discovers his half‑Roman heritage and must choose between painting revolutionary slogans on the governor’s palace or risking execution, as rival rebel factions and Roman oppression threaten both love and liberty.

“He's not the messiah...he's just a naughty boy.”

Directed by
Terry Jones
Written by
Graham Chapman, John Cleese
Rated
MPA · R
Runtime
94 min
Comedy

Synopsis

Brian Cohen is a young Jewish man who, through a series of absurd events, becomes mistakenly regarded as the Messiah. As he tries to avoid his growing number of followers and deals with the constant nagging of his overbearing mother, he also faces off against the arrogant Pontius Pilate and members of a separatist movement obsessed with acronyms. The story, filled with the characteristic absurd humor of Monty Python, mirrors elements of Biblical narrative, but with a comedic twist.

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: 26

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 Julian DoyleShot by Peter BiziouScored by Geoffrey BurgonDesigned by Terry Gilliam

Box Office

1979 · Box office

💰 Box-office hit — grossed 4.9× 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

$19.5M

Budget$4.0M
Worldwide gross$19.5M
break-even (2.5×)

US & Canada: $19.4M — 100% of worldwide · International: $54K (0%)

Re-release box office

2019125 theaters
$182K($235K today)
200428 theaters
$1.1M($1.9M today)
Total re-release
$1.3M

Domestic gross earned in theatrical re-release, by year · adjusted for inflation

Full synopsis

Also known as

  • Das Leben des Briande
  • Monty Python - Das Leben des Briande
  • Monty Pythons - Das Leben des Briande
  • Life of Brianen
  • La vida de Brianes
  • La vie de Brianfr
  • Monty Python : La Vie de Brianfr
  • Brian di Nazarethit

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