Rat Race (film)

This article is about the 2001 film. For the 1960 film, see The Rat Race. For other uses, see Rat race (disambiguation).
Rat Race
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJerry Zucker
Written byAndy Breckman
Produced byJerry Zucker
Janet Zucker
Sean Daniel
StarringRowan Atkinson
Lanai Chapman
John Cleese
Whoopi Goldberg
Cuba Gooding Jr
Seth Green
Wayne Knight
Jon Lovitz
Breckin Meyer
Kathy Najimy
Amy Smart
Dave Thomas
Vince Vieluf
CinematographyThomas E. Ackerman
Edited byTom Lewis
Music byJohn Powell[1]
Production
companies
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
  • August 17, 2001 (2001-08-17) (United States)
Running time
112 minutes[2]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$48 million
Box office$85.5 million

Rat Race is a 2001 American comedy film directed by Jerry Zucker. Inspired by Stanley Kramer's 1963 film It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,[3] the film features an ensemble cast consisting of Rowan Atkinson, Whoopi Goldberg, Cuba Gooding Jr., Wayne Knight, Jon Lovitz, Kathy Najimy, Lanei Chapman, Breckin Meyer, Amy Smart, Seth Green, Vince Vieluf, John Cleese and Dave Thomas.

The film centers on six teams of people who are given the task of racing 563 miles (906 km) from a Las Vegas casino to a Silver City, New Mexico, train station where a storage locker contains a duffel bag filled with $2 million. Each team is given a key to the locker, and the first person to reach the locker gets the money.

Produced by Fireworks Pictures, Alphaville Films, and Zucker's Zucker Productions, the film was released theatrically by Paramount Pictures on August 17, 2001, in the United States and Canada. Despite receiving mixed reviews from critics, the film was a box office success, having grossed $85.5 million worldwide against a $48 million budget.

  1. ^ "Rat Race". IMDb. Retrieved 26 July 2022.
  2. ^ "Rat Race (12)". British Board of Film Classification. 2001-08-29. Retrieved 2012-01-02.
  3. ^ Robert Koehler (12 August 2001). "Rat Race". Variety. Retrieved 31 July 2023.