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Released
1990 · FILM

The Two Jakes

Private investigator J.J. “Jake” Gittes is hired to probe a wealthy developer’s marital woes, only to discover a deadly scheme over hidden oil reserves beneath Los Angeles that forces him to expose a powerful conspiracy before it destroys him and the city.

“They say money makes the world go round. But sex was invented before money.”

Directed by
Jack Nicholson
Written by
Robert Towne
Runtime
137 min
CrimeDramaMystery

Synopsis

Real estate developer Jake Berman hires private investigator and war veteran Jake Gittes for a routine matrimonial assignment. After Berman shoots his wife's lover, who is also his business partner, Gittes becomes entangled in a complex conspiracy involving the oil reserves beneath Los Angeles. As he investigates, Gittes hears a voice from his past, prompting him to revisit a traumatic case from his time in Chinatown.

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: 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 Anne GoursaudShot by Vilmos ZsigmondScored by Van Dyke ParksDesigned by Jeremy Railton

Box Office

1990 · Box office

📉 Underperformed — grossed 0.5× 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

$10.0M

Budget$19.0M
Worldwide gross$10.0M
break-even (2.5×)

Opening weekend: $3.7M — 37% of its US run. Front-loaded — most of its money arrived opening weekend.

Opening week (7-day): $5.4M — 54% of its US & Canada run.

Peak 1,206 theaters

Also known as

  • Die Spur führt zurückde
  • Die Spur führt zurück - The two Jakesde
  • Los dos Jakeses
  • Il grande ingannoit

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