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Released
2003 · FILM

The Barbarian Invasions

A terminally ill Montreal professor fights bureaucracy as his estranged son returns home, using wealth and connections to secure a miracle treatment before time runs out.

“A comedy about sex, friendship, and all other things that invade our lives.”

Directed by
Denys Arcand
Written by
Denys Arcand
Runtime
99 min
Language
FR
ComedyCrimeDrama

Synopsis

This belated sequel to *The Decline of the American Empire* follows middle-aged Montreal college professor Remy, who is diagnosed with terminal liver cancer. His ex-wife, Louise, asks their estranged son, Sebastian, a successful businessman living in London, to return home. Sebastian uses his resources and connections to navigate and disrupt the Canadian healthcare system in an effort to secure treatment for his father. As Remy faces his illness, some of his old friends—Pierre, Alain, Dominique, Diane, and Claude—return to reunite with him before his death.

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: 18

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 Isabelle DedieuShot by Guy DufauxScored by Pierre AviatDesigned by Francois Seguin

Box Office

2003 · Box office

💰 Box-office hit — grossed 4.4× 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

$34.9M

Budget$8.0M
Worldwide gross$34.9M
break-even (2.5×)

US & Canada: $5.1M — 15% of worldwide · International: $29.8M (85%)

Re-release box office

2004139 theaters
$4.3M($7.6M today)
200354 theaters
$977K($1.8M today)
Total re-release
$5.3M

Domestic gross earned in theatrical re-release, by year · adjusted for inflation

Also known as

  • Die Invasion der Barbarende
  • Invasion der Barbarende
  • The Barbarian Invasionsen
  • Las invasiones bárbarases
  • Le invasioni barbaricheit

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