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Poster for The Golden Child
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Released
1986 · FILM

The Golden Child

Social worker Chandler Jarrell is thrust into a supernatural quest when a mystic priestess tells him he’s the Chosen One destined to locate and save a kidnapped Tibetan boy whose powers could doom humanity, forcing him to battle an ancient evil bent on global destruction.

“Eddie Murphy is the chosen one.”

Directed by
Michael Ritchie, W Alexander Ellis
Written by
Dennis Feldman, Cris Hammond
Rated
MPA · PG-13
Runtime
94 min
ActionAdventureComedy

Synopsis

When a Tibetan boy known as the mystical Golden Child is kidnapped by the evil Sardo Numspa, the fate of humankind is thrown into jeopardy. On the other side of the world in Los Angeles, the priestess Kee Nang searches for the Chosen One who can rescue the boy from death. After seeing social worker Chandler Jarrell on television discussing his ability to locate missing children, Nang enlists his help, despite his doubts about being "chosen."

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

A crew of 453+ 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 Richard A HarrisShot by Donald E ThorinScored by Michel ColombierDesigned by J Michael RivaSound by Jim Alexander Nm0018482Stunts by Mickey GilbertVFX by Ken Ralston

Box Office

1986 · Box office

✅ Made its money back — grossed 3.2× 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

$79.8M

Budget$25.0M
Worldwide gross$79.8M
break-even (2.5×)

US & Canada: $79.8M — 100% of worldwide · International: $2 (0%)

Opening weekend: $11.5M — 14% of its US run. It had legs — it kept earning long after opening weekend.

Opening week (7-day): $15.4M — 19% of its US & Canada run.

Peak 1,667 theaters

Also known as

  • Auf der Suche nach dem goldenen Kindde
  • Golden Child : L'Enfant sacré du Tibetfr
  • Il bambino d'oroit

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