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Released
2000 · FILM

Traffic

Corrupt Mexican official tasks idealistic officer Javier Rodriguez with hunting a cartel hitman, only for him to discover his own commander is feeding the rival drug war—and must decide whether to expose the betrayal before it destroys everything he’s sworn to protect.

“No one gets away clean”

Directed by
Steven Soderbergh
Written by
Simon Moore, Stephen Gaghan
Rated
MPA · R
Runtime
147 min
CrimeDramaThriller
Streaming on
  • Paramount+

Synopsis

This film offers an exploration of the United States' war on drugs from multiple perspectives. When the new head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy discovers that his well-educated daughter is abusing cocaine in their comfortable suburban home, the war on drugs becomes deeply personal for him. Meanwhile, in Mexico, a flawed but noble policeman agrees to testify against a powerful general who is collaborating with a cartel. In San Diego, a drug kingpin's sheltered trophy wife is forced to learn the details of her husband's ruthless business after he is arrested, putting her luxurious lifestyle at risk.

Credits

Actors
Editor
Production Designer
Director of Photography
Writers
Director

Related titles

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How many hands made this film

The scale of the collaboration

Principal cast & crew: 30

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 Stephen MirrioneShot by Steven SoderberghScored by Cliff MartinezDesigned by Philip Messina

Box Office

2000 · Box office

💰 Box-office hit — grossed 4.3× 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

$207.5M

Budget$48.0M
Worldwide gross$207.5M
break-even (2.5×)

US & Canada: $124.1M — 60% of worldwide · International: $83.4M (40%)

Opening weekend: $185K — 0% of its US run. It had legs — it kept earning long after opening weekend.

Peak 4 theaters

Full synopsis

Also known as

  • Die Macht des Kartellsde
  • Traffic - Die Macht des Kartellsde
  • Traffic - Macht des Kartellsde

Companies

ProductionThe Bedford Falls Company, Initial Entertainment Group (IEG), USA Films

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