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Released
2002 · FILM

The Importance of Being Earnest

A carefree bachelor adopts the alias “Ernest” to escape societal expectations and court his ideal woman, only to have his ruse collide with a rival’s identical deception, forcing both men into a frantic battle of wits to preserve love and reputation.

“Everybody Loves Ernest... But Nobody's Quite Sure Who He Really Is.”

Directed by
Oliver Parker
Written by
Oscar Wilde, Oliver Parker
Runtime
97 min
ComedyDramaRomance
Streaming on
  • The Criterion Channel

Synopsis

In 1890s England, two young men secretly use the same pseudonym, "Ernest," to navigate social situations. Their deception becomes complicated when they both fall in love with women named Ernest, leading to a series of comedic misunderstandings and mistaken identities.

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 Guy BensleyShot by Tony Pierce RobertsScored by Charlie MoleDesigned by Luciana Arrighi

Box Office

2002 · Box office

⚖️ Fell short of break-even — grossed 1.2× 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

$17.3M

Budget$15.0M
Worldwide gross$17.3M
break-even (2.5×)

US & Canada: $8.4M — 48% of worldwide · International: $8.9M (52%)

Also known as

  • Ernst sein ist Allesde
  • La importancia de llamarse Ernestoes
  • L'Importance d'être Constantfr
  • L'importanza di chiamarsi Ernestit

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