Poster © DreamWorks Pictures. Shown at reduced size for review and commentary.
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GenreComedy
RatedR
Runtime1 hr 28 mins
ReleasedFebruary 21, 2003
StreamingSee Where to Watch
DirectorTodd Phillips
StarringLuke Wilson, Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn
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Old School (2003)
| ▶Stream It | ★The Numbers |
| 🎫Get Tickets | ✎Edit History |
| iIMDb Profile | %Rotten Tomatoes |
| WWikipedia | LLetterboxd |
| TTMDB | +Add to Top 8 |
| Old School's Details | |
| Genre | Comedy |
| Rated | R |
| Released | 02/21/2003 |
| Streaming | See Where to Watch on this page. |
| Running Time | 1 hr 28 mins |
| Budget | $24M (reported) |
| Box Office | Updated daily from Box Office Mojo. See the numbers below. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Old School's Interests | |
| General | Frat houses, zoning loopholes, Mitch-a-Palooza, college debate, friends who never grew up. |
| Music | Theodore Shapiro. Plus Snoop Dogg, live, at a house party in the suburbs. |
| Movies | Animal House (1978). The frat comedy blueprint. This one just has more mortgages. |
| Television | Saturday Night Live. Where Ferrell learned to commit this hard. |
| Heroes | Frank the Tank. Grown man, newly married, fully committed to the bit. |
| Old School's Crew | |
| Director | Todd Phillips |
| Writers | Todd Phillips, Scot Armstrong, Court Crandall (story), Todd Phillips (story), Scot Armstrong (story) |
| Producers | Daniel Goldberg, Joe Medjuck, Todd Phillips |
| Cinematography | Mark Irwin |
| Music | Theodore Shapiro |
| Edited By | Michael Jablow |
| Production | The Montecito Picture Company |
| Distributed By | DreamWorks Pictures |
Old School’s plot fits on a cocktail napkin: three grown men start a fraternity to save a rental house, and that’s all the thought it gets. Luke Wilson is the lead, and he plays Mitch like he’s waiting for a nap. Luckily he’s standing next to Will Ferrell. Frank the Tank is a newlywed in a polo shirt who fails at being responsible in spectacular ways, like a tranquilizer dart mishap at a kid’s birthday party that’s worth the whole rental. His debate against James Carville, where he zones out and comes back having somehow won, is pure Ferrell. Vince Vaughn talks so fast as Bernard that his lines sound like auction bids. Jeremy Piven’s dean is a stock villain, and a lot of the humor is rowdy stuff that hasn’t aged well. It made $87.1 million worldwide on a reported $24M. A 6.0 because Ferrell is a classic and everything around him is filler. $5,208 says you nail your next work presentation and can’t remember a single word of it afterward.
What works: Will Ferrell going all in as Frank the Tank, plus Vince Vaughn’s motor-mouth hustle as Bernard.
What doesn’t: Luke Wilson’s lead is flat, the dean is a cardboard villain, and plenty of the rowdy jokes have not aged well.
Who it’s for: Grown-ups who already quote Frank the Tank and want a loose, goofy comedy for a Friday night.
Spoilers
The fraternity passes every test the dean throws at it until he rigs the final score, then a tape of him admitting he bribed a student gets him fired. The house is saved, Mitch patches things up with Nicole, and Frank, naturally, ends up running the fraternity.
Mitch Martin (Luke Wilson) comes home early from a work trip and walks straight into the end of his relationship with Heidi (Juliette Lewis). So he rents a house right next to a college campus. His buddy Bernard (Vince Vaughn), a married dad, sees potential. Their newly married friend Frank (Will Ferrell) sees freedom. One legendary housewarming party later, the dean, Gordon Pritchard (Jeremy Piven), a guy they used to pick on, rezones the house for campus use only. Bernard's loophole: turn it into a fraternity, open to anyone. Todd Phillips directs. Ninety minutes, and Frank the Tank is just getting warmed up.
Anyone who still owns their college hoodie. Pledges welcome.
Mitch "The Godfather" Martinphoto: Gabriel Hutchinson, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
| Luke Wilson | Mitch "The Godfather" Martin |
| Will Ferrell | Frank "The Tank" Ricard |
| Vince Vaughn | Bernard "Beanie" Campbell |
| Jeremy Piven | Dean Gordon "Cheese" Pritchard |
| Ellen Pompeo | Nicole |
| Juliette Lewis | Heidi |
| Leah Remini | Lara Campbell |
| Perrey Reeves | Marissa Jones |
| Craig Kilborn | Mark |
| Elisha Cuthbert | Darcie Goldberg |
| Harve Presnell | Mr. Springbrook |
| Artie Lange | Booker |
| Matt Walsh | Walsh |
| Patrick Fischler | Michael |
| Sara Tanaka | Megan Huang |
| Sarah Shahi | Erica |
| Seann William Scott | Peppers |
| Todd Phillips | Gang Bang Guy |
| Bryan Callen | Avi |
| Snoop Dogg | himself |
| James Carville | himself |
| Warren G | himself |
| Kokane | himself |
| Terry O'Quinn | Goldberg |
- (cur | prev) 14:30, 17 October 2026 DataBot +400 Numbers refreshed: Worldwide box office $87.1M; Domestic box office $75.6M; Opening weekend $17.5M; Profit / loss (est.) +$7.6M; Rotten Tomatoes 60%; box office chart updated; Rotten Tomatoes critics 60% (161 reviews); Metacritic 54 / 100; IMDb users 7.0 / 10 (258,761 votes); movie.guru score 5.9.
- (cur | prev) 12:00, 17 October 2026 DataBot +2,000 Profile created from Wikipedia and Box Office Mojo: cast, crew, release dates, budget, official trailer.