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Released
1977 · FILM

Orca

A grieving killer whale sets out to exact vengeance on the reckless captain who destroyed its family, while a determined marine biologist, an Indigenous tracker, and the harbor’s desperate townsfolk race against time to stop the relentless predator before it destroys their community.

“Terror just beneath the surface.”

Directed by
Michael Anderson, Michael Anderson Nm0027183
Written by
Luciano Vincenzoni, Sergio Donati
Runtime
92 min
AdventureDramaHorror

Synopsis

After witnessing the killing of his mate and offspring at the hands of a reckless Irish captain, a vengeful killer whale rampages through a fisherman's harbor in Newfoundland. Under pressure from the villagers, the captain, a female marine biologist, and an Indigenous tribalist set out to track down the great beast, who will ultimately confront them on its own turf.

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

Principal cast & crew: 22

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 John BloomShot by J Barry HerronScored by Ennio MorriconeDesigned by Mario Garbuglia

Box Office

1977 · 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

$14.7M

Budget$17.5M
Worldwide gross$14.7M
break-even (2.5×)

Also known as

  • Orca - Der Killerwalde
  • Orca, The Killer Whaleen
  • L'orca assassinait

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