Poster © Paramount Pictures. Shown at reduced size for review and commentary.
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GenreDrama & Film-Noir
RatedNot Rated
Runtime1 hr 50 mins
ReleasedAugust 10, 1950
StreamingSee Where to Watch
DirectorBilly Wilder
StarringWilliam Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim
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Sunset Boulevard (1950)
| ▶Stream It | ★The Numbers |
| 🎫Get Tickets | ✎Edit History |
| iIMDb Profile | %Rotten Tomatoes |
| WWikipedia | LLetterboxd |
| TTMDB | +Add to Top 8 |
| Sunset Boulevard's Details | |
| Genre | Drama & Film-Noir |
| Rated | Not Rated |
| Released | 08/10/1950 |
| Streaming | See Where to Watch on this page. |
| Running Time | 1 hr 50 mins |
| Budget | $1.8M (reported) |
| Box Office | Updated daily from Box Office Mojo. See the numbers below. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Sunset Boulevard's Interests | |
| General | Old Hollywood, a 1929 Isotta Fraschini, home screenings, a pipe organ, a very long Salome script. |
| Music | Franz Waxman, scoring Hollywood's dark side with total glamour. |
| Movies | All About Eve (1950). Same year, same backstage claws. |
| Television | Feud: Bette and Joan. Hollywood still hasn't learned. |
| Heroes | Max, the butler. Devoted, spotless, and the best driver on Sunset. |
| Sunset Boulevard's Crew | |
| Director | Billy Wilder |
| Writers | Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder, D. M. Marshman Jr. |
| Producers | Charles Brackett |
| Cinematography | John F. Seitz |
| Music | Franz Waxman |
| Edited By | Doane Harrison, Arthur Schmidt |
| Production | Paramount Pictures |
| Distributed By | Paramount Pictures |
Sunset Boulevard opens with a body floating in a Hollywood swimming pool and a narrator who promises to explain how it got there, and Billy Wilder makes the walk back feel like a slow-motion car crash. William Holden plays Joe as a guy too smart to fall for this and too broke to leave. Gloria Swanson is unforgettable as Norma Desmond, a silent star living in a mansion papered with her own photos, and she plays every gesture three sizes too big on purpose. Erich von Stroheim’s Max, the butler, is the saddest man in Hollywood history, and his secrets are worth the wait. The weak spot is the young romance back at the studio. Nancy Olson is lovely, but those scenes feel like a smaller, tidier picture wandered in. Critics gave it 98% and a 94 on Metacritic. A 9.5 because it’s Hollywood roasting itself, and the burns still sting. $83.83 says you shrink a photo of yourself on your phone this week and mutter that you’re still big, it’s the pictures that got small.
What works: Gloria Swanson’s huge, haunted performance is legendary, and Wilder’s script is funny and cruel in the same breath.
What doesn’t: The romance between Joe and Betty back at the studio is thin and keeps pulling focus from the far stranger story in the mansion.
Who it’s for: Anyone who loves movies about movies, or wants to see where a pile of Hollywood’s favorite quotes came from.
Spoilers
The body in the pool is Joe, shot by Norma when he finally tries to walk out on her. Max turns out to be her first director and former husband, who has been writing her fan letters for years. In the last scene, lost in her fantasy, Norma glides down the staircase toward the news cameras, believing she’s back on a film set.
Joe Gillis (William Holden) is a Hollywood screenwriter with no money, no buyers and repo men chasing his car. Ducking them, he swings into the driveway of a crumbling mansion on Sunset Boulevard. Inside lives Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), a silent movie queen the business forgot, plus her loyal butler Max (Erich von Stroheim). Norma has written an enormous Salome script for her big return to the screen and wants a pro to polish it. Joe wants a paycheck. Back at the studio, script reader Betty Schaefer (Nancy Olson) thinks he still has talent. Billy Wilder directs. One hundred ten minutes, one mansion time forgot.
Anyone who remembers the silent era. Norma would love to hear from you, at length.
| William Holden | Joe Gillis |
| Gloria Swanson | Norma Desmond |
| Erich von Stroheim | Max von Mayerling |
| Nancy Olson | Betty Schaefer |
| Fred Clark | Sheldrake |
| Lloyd Gough | Morino |
| Jack Webb | Artie Green |
| Franklyn Farnum | undertaker |
| Larry J. Blake | finance man #1 |
| Charles Dayton | finance man #2 |
| Jack Warden | New Year's Eve party guest |
| Cecil B. DeMille | himself |
| Hedda Hopper | herself |
| Sidney Skolsky | himself |
| Buster Keaton | himself |
| Anna Q. Nilsson | herself |
| H. B. Warner | himself |
| Ray Evans | a pianist at Artie's party |
| Jay Livingston | a pianist at Artie's party |
| Henry Wilcoxon | actor on DeMille's Samson and Delilah set |
| Robert O'Connor | Jonesy |
- (cur | prev) 14:30, 17 October 2026 DataBot +360 Numbers refreshed: Worldwide box office $340K; Domestic box office $300K; Profit / loss (est.) -$2.5M; Rotten Tomatoes 98%; box office chart updated; Rotten Tomatoes critics 98% (125 reviews); Metacritic 94 / 100; IMDb users 8.4 / 10 (264,516 votes); movie.guru score 9.7.
- (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.