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Poster for Mortal Engines
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Released
2018 · FILM

Mortal Engines

A daring scavenger in the mobile metropolis of London must outwit rival predator cities and uncover ancient tech to save a captured mining town before it’s consumed by the relentless hunt of Municipal Darwinism.

“Some scars never heal”

Directed by
Christian Rivers, Harry Ashby
Written by
Frances Walsh, Philippa Boyens
Rated
MPA · PG-13
Runtime
128 min
ActionAdventureAnimation
Streaming on
  • Paramount+

Synopsis

In a distant future, Earth's cities are massive, mobile structures that travel on enormous wheels, consuming one another in a desperate competition for dwindling resources. On the colossal traction city of London, Tom Natsworthy crosses paths with a young woman from the wastelands, whose mysterious presence will alter the course of his life.

Credits

Actors
Editor
Production Designer
Director of Photography
Writers
Directors

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How many hands made this film

The scale of the collaboration

A crew of 973+ 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 Jonathan Woodford RobinsonShot by Simon RabyScored by Tom HolkenborgDesigned by Dan HennahSound by Christopher BoyesVFX by Aaron Cubis

Box Office

2018 · Box office

📉 Underperformed — grossed 0.8× 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

$83.9M

Budget$100.0M
Worldwide gross$83.9M
break-even (2.5×)

US & Canada: $16.0M — 19% of worldwide · International: $67.9M (81%)

Opening weekend: $7.6M — 47% of its US run. Front-loaded — most of its money arrived opening weekend.

Opening week (7-day): $10.3M — 64% of its US & Canada run.

Peak 3,103 theaters

Full synopsis

Also known as

  • Mortal Engines: Krieg der Städtede
  • Macchine mortaliit

Companies

ProductionMedia Rights Capital (MRC), Scholastic Productions, Silvertongue Films, WingNut Films, Perfect World Pictures
DistributionUniversal Pictures, Universal Pictures Canada, Universal Pictures UK, CinemArt, Finnkino
Special effectsWētā FX, Stereo D, Weta Workshop
Other companiesAvalon Studios Limited, Back Lot Music, Barco Auro 11.1, Billionaire's Catering, Crombie Lockwood

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