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Released
2012 · FILM

The Sessions

Paralyzed journalist Mark O'Brien hires a compassionate sex surrogate to finally experience intimacy, but must confront his own physical limits and emotional vulnerability before he can claim the connection he’s longed for.

“The festival hit of the year!”

Directed by
Ben Lewin
Written by
Ben Lewin, Mark O Brien
Rated
MPA · R
Runtime
95 min
BiographyComedyDrama

Synopsis

Mark O'Brien, whose childhood bout with polio left him dependent on an iron lung, has built a career as a journalist and poet. Intrigued by a writing assignment on sex and disability, he becomes curious about his own experience in the matter. After his attempts to connect with a caregiver unsettle her, he arranges to meet with sex surrogate Cheryl Cohen-Greene in an effort to lose his virginity.

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: 33

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 Lisa BromwellShot by Geoffrey SimpsonScored by Marco BeltramiDesigned by John Mott

Box Office

2012 · Box office

💰 Box-office hit — grossed 9.1× 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

$9.1M

Budget$1.0M
Worldwide gross$9.1M
break-even (2.5×)

Opening week (7-day): $160K

Peak 4 theaters

Also known as

  • The Sessions - Wenn Worte berührende
  • The Sessions - Gli appuntamentiit

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