The Heist of the Century (film)

"El robo del siglo" redirects here. For the Colombian series, see The Great Heist.
The Heist of the Century
Theatrical release poster
SpanishEl robo del siglo
Directed byAriel Winograd
StarringDiego Peretti
Guillermo Francella
Pablo Rago
Luis Luque
Rafael Ferro
Mariano Argento
Production
companies
Distributed byWarner Bros. Pictures
Release date
  • 16 January 2020 (2020-01-16)
Running time
114 minutes
CountryArgentina
LanguageSpanish
Box office$12 million[1]

The Heist of the Century (Spanish: El robo del siglo) is a 2020 Argentine comedy thriller film and is directed by Ariel Winograd.[2] The film stars Diego Peretti, Guillermo Francella, Pablo Rago, Luis Luque, Rafael Ferro, and Mariano Argento.

Plot

The film is based on a true story, the Bank Rio Heist of the Banco Río branch in the Buenos Aires town of Acassuso on January 13, 2006, which was held up by a gang of six robbers armed with replica weapons.[3] They took 23 hostages and took $15 million from 147 safes.[4]

Cast

  • Diego Peretti as Fernando Araujo, mastermind and executor of the heist.
  • Guillermo Francella as Mario Vitette Sellanes, "the man in the gray suit."[5]
  • Pablo Rago as Sebastián as "the Martian."[6]
  • Luis Luque as Miguel Sileo, a police negotiator.
  • Juan Alari as "the Paisa", driver of the truck.[5]
  • Rafael Ferro as Alberto "Beto" de la Torre, in charge of taking hostages.[7]
  • Magela Zanotta as "the Turk," De la Torre's wife.[5]
  • Johanna Francella as Lucía Vitette Sellanes.
  • Mariano Argento as "the Doc" Debauza.
  • Mario Moscoso and Darío Levy as police officers.
  • Fabián Arenillas as the head of the Hawk Group.
  • Mario Alarcón as the prosecutor.
  • Enrique Dumont as the psychoanalyst.
  • Sebastián Mogordoy as the security guard.
  • Mariela Pizzo as Claudia, wife of "the Martian"
  • Luz Palazón as the bank employee.
  • María Marull as the lawyer.
  • Paula Grinszpan as the cleaning worker.
  • Pochi Ducasse and Juan Tupac Soler as hostages.

Production

The filming began on April 15, 2019 in Buenos Aires[8] and ended on June 4 of the same year in Potrerillos, Mendoza,[9] approximately seven and a half months before its final release, on January 16, 2020. The script was written by producer Alex Zito and the author of the robbery, Fernando Araujo,[6][10] who had a paint shop ten blocks from the bank. The film was distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.[11]

Release

The Heist of the Century premiered in Argentina on 16 January 2020.[12] It also showed at the Málaga Film Festival in March 2020.[13]

Reception

Critical response

The film received positive reviews from the specialized press.

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 83% of 6 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.7/10.

According to the website Todas las críticas, a portal that collects and averages among various professional reviews, the film has a rating of 77/100, based on 34 reviews.[14]

Box office

The film, distributed by Warner Bros., was released in 376 theaters, which involved a nationwide release. Given the interest during its premiere and previews, it ended up expanding its premiere to 392 theaters.[15][16] With an estimate of 96,420 tickets sold on Thursday, January 17, 2020, according to the website, Ultracine, Heist of the Century thus became the second most viewed Argentine film in history on its opening day, only behind what was achieved by the animated film Underdogs, with 113,000 entries.[17] After its first weekend on the billboard, the film also managed to be in fifth place in history in terms of tickets sold by a native production with 417,000 tickets cut off, only surpassed by The Clan (504,000), Wild Tales (450,000) and Underdogs (425,000).[18] At the end of its first full week on the billboard, the total reached 634,000.[19]

The film was seen by two million viewers.[20]

References

  1. ^ "Heist of the Century - Box Office". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved February 8, 2020.
  2. ^ "EXCLUSIVE. On the Set of the Heist of the Century: Ariel Winograd, the Director Who Makes It Possible". Infobae. June 19, 2019. Retrieved August 19, 2019.
  3. ^ "The Robbery of the Río de Acassuso Bank, A Movie Story". The Nation (in Spanish). February 12, 2010. Retrieved Aug 19, 2019.
  4. ^ Palacios, Rodolfo (January 14, 2019). "The Argentine Heist of the Century that Anticipated 'The Paper House'". Retrieved August 20, 2019.
  5. ^ a b c "Heist of the century: Francella, Peretti and Ferro, the Movie Thieves". The Nation. May 1, 2019. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
  6. ^ a b Cano, Eugenia. "Ariel Winograd Culminated in Mendoza the Filming of the movie 'Heist of the century'". Andean Site.
  7. ^ Leclercq, Giselle (May 11, 2019). "Vitette Sellanes and Valor, to the Cinema: Movie Thieves". Profile News. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
  8. ^ Guillén, Marco (April 24, 2019). "Heist of the Century: Filming of Ariel Winograd-Directed Movie Begins". Four Bastards. Retrieved August 19, 2019.
  9. ^ "Heist of the Century Ended Its Filming in Potrerillos". MdzOnline. Retrieved August 19, 2019.
  10. ^ Palacios, Rodolfo (April 19, 2018). "Leader of the Heist of the Century gang Is Considering Prosecuting the Authors of 'Paper House' for Plagiarism". Infobae. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
  11. ^ "Ariel Winograd And Damián Szifron Preparing Their Next Feature Films". LatAm Cinema. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
  12. ^ "Vitette: El robo del siglo "será una gran película per lejos de la realidad"" [Vitette: The robbery of the century "will be a great movie but far from reality"]. El Observador (in Spanish). 16 January 2020. Retrieved 29 August 2020.
  13. ^ "Festivals: Argentine Films at the Malaga Spanish Film Festival". Writing Cinema. Archived from the original on August 9, 2020. Retrieved June 12, 2022.
  14. ^ "Heist of the century - TLC". TLC. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  15. ^ "More than 370 Theaters for the 'Heist of the Century'". Argentine Cinemas. Retrieved January 19, 2020.
  16. ^ "Argentina: Great Debut of the 'Heist of the century'". Ultracine. Retrieved January 17, 2020.
  17. ^ "Nearly 100,000 people Watched the Heist of the Century on Day One". Argentine Cinemas. Retrieved January 17, 2020.
  18. ^ "Numbers of Argentine Cinema". Latin Oscar Awards. Retrieved January 21, 2020.
  19. ^ "Argentina: 'Heist of the century' Spends A Great Week at the Box Office". Ultracine. Retrieved February 7, 2020.
  20. ^ "Argentine Box Office: 2020". Latin Oscar Awards. Retrieved February 7, 2020.