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Poster for Searching for Sugar Man
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Released
2012 · FILM

Searching for Sugar Man

Two devoted South African fans embark on a globe‑spanning quest to uncover the truth behind their vanished 1970s musical idol, risking obsession and myth as they chase clues that could rewrite his legacy.

Great Art Always Survives

Rated
MPA · PG-13
Runtime
85 min
BiographyDocumentaryMusic

Synopsis

Two South Africans set out to discover what happened to their unlikely musical hero, the mysterious 1970s rock musician.

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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 Malik BendjelloulShot by Camilla Skagerstrom

Box Office

2012 · Box office

Made its money back — grossed 3.7× 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

$3.7M

Budget$1.0M
Worldwide gross$3.7M
break-even (2.5×)

Opening week (7-day): $43K

Peak 3 theaters

Also known as

  • Sugar Manfr

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