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Poster for Throw Momma from the Train
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Released
1987 · FILM

Throw Momma from the Train

A bitter author desperate to finish his novel must outwit a psychotic writing student who’s plotting murders—including his own mother’s—while forcing him into a deadly pact that threatens both their lives.

“Owen asked his friend Larry for a small favor.”

Directed by
Danny Devito
Written by
Stu Silver
Rated
MPA · PG-13
Runtime
88 min
ComedyCrimeThriller
Streaming on
  • MGM+

Synopsis

Larry Donner, an author with a cruel ex-wife, leads a writing workshop where one of his students, Owen, is frustrated by his overbearing mother. After watching a Hitchcock film that appears to reflect his own life, Owen decides to replicate the movie's plot by offering to kill Larry's ex-wife, provided Larry agrees to kill his mother. Before Larry can respond to the proposal, it appears that Owen has already begun putting the plan into motion.

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: 19

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 Michael JablowShot by Barry SonnenfeldScored by David NewmanDesigned by Ida Random

Box Office

1987 · Box office

💰 Box-office hit — grossed 4.1× 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

$57.9M

Budget$14.0M
Worldwide gross$57.9M
break-even (2.5×)

Also known as

  • Schmeiss die Mama aus dem Zugde
  • Schmeiß' die Mama aus dem Zugde
  • Balance maman hors du trainfr
  • Getta la mamma dal trenoit

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