Atlas Shrugged (film series) explained

Atlas Shrugged
Studio:	The Strike Productions (Part I)
Released:	(Part I) (Part II) (Part III)
Runtime:	308 minutes
Country:	United States
Language:	English
Budget:	$35 million
Gross:	$8.9 million^[1]

Atlas Shrugged is a trilogy of American science fiction drama films. The series, adaptations of Ayn Rand's 1957 novel of the same title, are subtitled Part I (2011), Part II (2012) and Part III (2014); the latter sometimes includes Who Is John Galt? in the title.

Synopsis

The films take place in a dystopian United States, wherein many of society's most prominent and successful industrialists abandon their fortunes as the government shifts the nation towards socialism, making aggressive new regulations, taking control of industries, while picking winners and losers.

• In Part I, railroad executive Dagny Taggart (Taylor Schilling) and steel mogul Henry Rearden (Grant Bowler) form an alliance to fight the increasingly authoritarian government of the United States.
• In Part II, Taggart (Samantha Mathis) and Rearden (Jason Beghe) search desperately for the inventor of a revolutionary motor as the U.S. government continues to spread its control over the national economy.
• In Part III, Taggart (Laura Regan) and Rearden (Rob Morrow) come into contact with the man responsible for the strike whose effects are the focus of much of the series.

Overview

Role	Films
	(2011)	(2012)	(2014)
Director	Paul Johansson	John Putch	J. James Manera
Producer(s)	John Aglialoro Harmon Kaslow	John Aglialoro Harmon Kaslow Jeff Freilich	John Aglialoro Harmon Kaslow
Screenwriter(s)	John Aglialoro Brian Patrick O'Toole	Duke Sandefur Brian Patrick O'Toole Duncan Scott	J. James Manera John Aglialoro Harmon Kaslow
Composer(s)	Elia Cmiral	Chris Bacon Ash Brown Gregg Benedict	Elia Cmiral
Editor(s)	Jim Flynn Sherril Schlesinger	John Gilbert	Tony Ciccone
Cinematographer	Ross Berryman		Gale Tattersall
Production company(s)	The Strike Productions	Either Or Productions	"A is A" Productions, Inc.
Distributor(s)	Rocky Mountain Pictures 20th Century Fox	Atlas Distribution Company
Runtime	97 minutes	112 minutes	99 minutes
Release date	April 15, 2011	October 12, 2012	September 12, 2014

Production

See Part I's production, Part II's production, Part III's production

Plot

See Part I's plot, Part II's plot, Part III's plot

Cast

The film trilogy is unique in that none of the same actors reprised their roles in the next films.

See also: List of Atlas Shrugged characters.

Character(s)	Actor
	Part I (2011)	Part II (2012)	Part III (2014)
Dagny Taggart	Taylor Schilling	Samantha Mathis	Laura Regan
Henry "Hank" Rearden	Grant Bowler	Jason Beghe	Rob Morrow
James Taggart	Matthew Marsden	Patrick Fabian	Greg Germann
John Galt	Paul Johansson	D.B. Sweeney	Kristoffer Polaha
Ellis Wyatt	Graham Beckel	Graham Beckel (image only)	Lew Temple
Francisco Domingo Carlos Andres Sebastián d'Anconia	Jsu Garcia	Esai Morales	Joaquim de Almeida
Wesley Mouch	Michael Lerner	Paul McCrane	Louis Herthum
Edwin "Eddie" Willers	Edi Gathegi	Richard T. Jones	Dominic Daniel
Cherryl Taggart (née Brooks)	Mercedes Connor	Larisa Oleynik	Jen Nikolaisen
Lillian Rearden	Rebecca Wisocky	Kim Rhodes
Philip Rearden	Neill Barry
Owen Kellogg	Ethan Cohn
Eugene Lawson	Rob Brownstein	Phil Valentine
Midas Mulligan	Geoff Pierson
Dr. Robert Stadler	Navid Negahban	Robert Picardo	Neil Dickson
Orren Boyle	Jon Polito
Head of State Thompson		Ray Wise	Peter Mackenzie
Hugh Akston	Michael O'Keefe		Stephen Tobolowsky
Dr. Floyd Ferris		John Rubinstein	Larry Cedar

Reception

The trilogy received predominantly negative critic reviews and the aggregate USA box office is just under $9 million, with each film performing worse than the last on both accounts.

• The first film, directed by Paul Johansson, stars Taylor Schilling, Grant Bowler, Matthew Marsden, Johansson, Graham Beckel and Jsu Garcia was released in April 2011 and had a USA box office of $4.6 million on a budget of $20 million.^[2] Most of the marketing was done online.
• The second film, directed by John Putch, stars Samantha Mathis, Jason Beghe, Patrick Fabian, D.B. Sweeney and Esai Morales, and had a USA box office of $3.3 million on a budget of $10 million.
• The third film, directed by J. James Manera, stars Laura Regan, Rob Morrow, Greg Germann, Kristoffer Polaha, Lew Temple and Joaquim de Almeida, and had a USA box office of $0.8 million on a budget of under $5 million.

Film	Release date			Budget	Gross
Atlas Shrugged: Part I	April 15, 2011	12% (51 reviews)^[3]	28 (19 reviews)^[4]	$20 million^[5]	$4,627,375
Atlas Shrugged: Part II	October 12, 2012	4% (23 reviews)^[6]	26 (11 reviews)^[7]	$10 million^[8] ^[9]	$3,336,053
Atlas Shrugged: Part III	September 26, 2014	0% (10 reviews)^[10]	9 (7 reviews)^[11]	>$5 million	$846,704

Home media

Part I was released on DVD and Blu-ray on November 8, 2011; Part II on February 19, 2013; and Part III on January 6, 2015.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Atlas Shrugged Franchise Movies at the Box Office . . . November 28, 2014 . November 27, 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20141127005509/http://boxofficemojo.com/franchises/chart/?id=atlasshrugg.htm . dead.
2. Web site: Atlas Shrugged: Part I (2011) . Box Office Mojo .
3. Web site: Atlas Shrugged Part I . . Rotten Tomatoes.
4. Web site: Atlas Shrugged: Part I . . CBS Interactive.
5. Libertarians Shrugged . David Weigel . Slate . March 3, 2011.
6. Web site: Atlas Shrugged: Part II (2012) . . Rotten Tomatoes.
7. Web site: Atlas Shrugged Part II . . Metacritic.
8. News: Steinberg . Don . 'Atlas Shrugged' Film Banks on Election Fever . . October 5, 2012.
9. Web site: Atlas Shrugged Franchise Box Office History - The Numbers . The Numbers.
10. Web site: Atlas Shrugged: Who is John Galt . . Rotten Tomatoes.
11. Web site: Atlas Shrugged: Part III . . CBS Interactive.