The Scarlet Letter
Shamed seamstress Hester Prynne fights to keep the identity of her child's father hidden, defying a rigid Puritan court that brands her with a scarlet "A" and threatens her very survival.
“When intimacy is forbidden and passion is a sin, love is the most defiant crime of all.”
Synopsis
Set in puritanical Boston in the mid-1600s, the story follows seamstress Hester Prynne, who is shunned after becoming pregnant by a respected reverend. She refuses to reveal the father's identity, is convicted of adultery, and is forced to wear a scarlet "A." An Indian attack unites the Puritans and leads to a reevaluation of their laws and morals.
Credits
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How many hands made this film
The scale of the collaboration
Principal cast & crew: 21
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 Thom NobleShot by Alex ThomsonScored by John BarryDesigned by Roy Walker
Box Office
1995 · Box office
📉 Underperformed — grossed 0.2× 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
$10.4M
Opening weekend: $4.1M — 40% of its US run. Front-loaded — most of its money arrived opening weekend.
Opening week (7-day): $5.4M — 52% of its US & Canada run.
Peak 1,510 theaters
Also known as
- Der Scharlachrote Buchstabede
- Les Amants du nouveau mondefr
- La lettera scarlattait
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Cast & Crew
21 unique people credited
Top billed cast
Demi Moore
as Hester Prynne
Gary Oldman
as Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale
Robert Duvall
as Roger Chillingworth
Lisa Andoh
as Mituba
Edward Hardwicke
as Gov. John Bellingham
Robert Prosky
as Horace Stonehall
Roy Dotrice
as Rev. Thomas Cheever
Joan Plowright
as Harriet Hibbons
Malcolm Storry
as Maj. Dunsmuir
James Bearden
as Goodman Mortimer
Directors
1Writers
2Producers
2Other crew
7Parents Guide
AI Personalities
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