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Released
1987 · FILM

Stakeout

Two mismatched detectives stake out an escaped killer’s ex‑girlfriend to catch him, but their mission spirals when one falls for her, forcing them to balance love and law before the convict returns.

“It's a tough job but somebody's got to do it!”

Directed by
John Badham
Written by
Jim Kouf
Runtime
116 min
ActionComedyCrime
Streaming on
  • The Criterion Channel

Synopsis

Two detectives are assigned to monitor the ex-girlfriend of an escaped convict, but their mission becomes complicated when one of them develops feelings for her.

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: 23

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 Michael RippsShot by John SealeScored by Arthur B RubinsteinDesigned by Philip Harrison

Box Office

1987 · Box office

💰 Box-office hit — grossed 4.5× 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

$65.7M

Budget$14.5M
Worldwide gross$65.7M
break-even (2.5×)

Opening weekend: $5.2M — 8% of its US run. It had legs — it kept earning long after opening weekend.

Opening week (7-day): $9.7M — 15% of its US & Canada run.

Peak 951 theaters

Also known as

  • Die Nacht hat viele Augende
  • Procedimiento ilegales
  • Étroite Surveillancefr
  • Sorveglianza... specialeit

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