Bad Santa

Bad Santa
A scruffy dishevelled Santa Claus, standing beside a scowling man in a yellow suit, and a fat child and an Santa helper elf standing in front of them.
Theatrical release poster
Directed byTerry Zwigoff
Written by
Story by (uncredited)
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyJamie Anderson
Edited byRobert Hoffman
Music byDavid Kitay
Production
companies
Distributed by
Release date
  • November 26, 2003 (2003-11-26)
Running time
92 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$23 million[2]
Box office$76.5 million[2]

Bad Santa is a 2003 American Christmas black comedy crime film directed by Terry Zwigoff, written by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, and starring Billy Bob Thornton in the title role, with a supporting cast of Tony Cox, Lauren Graham, Brett Kelly, Lauren Tom, John Ritter, and Bernie Mac. It was Ritter's last live-action film appearance before his death on September 11, 2003. The film was dedicated to his memory. The Coen brothers are credited as executive producers. The film was released in North America on November 26, 2003, and was screened out of competition at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.[3] It received positive reviews and was a commercial success.

An unrated version was released on DVD on March 5, 2004, and on Blu-ray on November 20, 2007, as Bad(der) Santa. A director's cut DVD was released in November 2006; it features Zwigoff's cut of the film (including an audio commentary with him and the film's editor), which is three minutes shorter than the theatrical cut and ten minutes shorter than the unrated version. A sequel, Bad Santa 2, was released on November 23, 2016, and failed to match the critical and commercial success of the original.

  1. ^ "Bad Santa (2003) - Financial Information". The Numbers. Archived from the original on 20 May 2021. Retrieved 20 May 2021.
  2. ^ a b "Bad Santa (2003)". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on 2011-09-09. Retrieved 2012-07-06.
  3. ^ "Festival de Cannes: Bad Santa". festival-cannes.com. Archived from the original on 2012-10-15. Retrieved 2009-12-05.