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Poster for sex, lies, and videotape
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Released
1989 · FILM

sex, lies, and videotape

A dissatisfied wife hires a therapist to save her crumbling marriage, only to have a voyeuristic friend’s secret recordings expose hidden affairs and force everyone to confront the painful truths they’ve been avoiding.

“the husband. the wife. her sister. his friend.”

Directed by
Steven Soderbergh, Alexandra Root
Written by
Steven Soderbergh
Rated
MPA · R
Runtime
100 min
Drama
Streaming on
  • Paramount+

Synopsis

Ann, a dissatisfied wife, begins counseling because of problems in her marriage. Unaware that her husband John has started an affair with her sister, she confronts the situation. When John's best friend Graham arrives and conducts interviews with women about their sexual lives, his involvement permanently alters the dynamics of John and Ann's troubled marriage.

Credits

Actors
Editor
Director of Photography
Writers
Directors

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How many hands made this film

The scale of the collaboration

A crew of 94+ 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 Steven SoderberghShot by Walt LloydScored by Cliff MartinezSound by Larry Blake

Box Office

1989 · Box office

💰 Box-office hit — grossed 21× 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

$24.7M

Budget$1.2M
Worldwide gross$24.7M
break-even (2.5×)

Opening weekend: $156K — 1% of its US run. It had legs — it kept earning long after opening weekend.

Opening week (7-day): $302K — 1% of its US & Canada run.

Peak 4 theaters

Also known as

  • Sex, Lügen und Videode
  • Sex, Lies, an d Videotapeen
  • Sexe, Mensonges et Vidéofr
  • Sesso, bugie e videotapeit
  • (Bulgarian)Секс, лъжи и видео
Release dates around the world3 countries · show
  • United StatesJan 20, 1989
  • FranceMay 14, 1989
  • SwitzerlandAug 1, 1989

Production & Distribution

Production companies
Outlaw Productions (I)Virgin
Distributors
Cannon Film DistributorsSandrew Film & TeaterTransmundo FilmsBDM DistributionRCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video
Other companiesTen Twenty Catering, Skywalker Sound, Weddington Productions, Telecine Tech, Truman Van Dyke Company

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