Rat Race (film)

Rat Race
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Jerry Zucker
Written by	Andy Breckman
Produced by	Jerry Zucker Janet Zucker Sean Daniel
Starring	Rowan 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
Cinematography	Thomas E. Ackerman
Edited by	Tom Lewis
Music by	John Powell[1]
Production companies	Fireworks Pictures Alphaville Films Zucker Productions
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	August 17, 2001 (2001-08-17) (United States)
Running time	112 minutes[2]
Country	United States
Language	English
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.