Arrival (2016)
89%RT Audience Score: 82%
Awards & Nominations: Won 1 Oscar
70 wins & 269 nominations total
Arrival delivers a must-see experience for fans of thinking person’s sci-fi that anchors its heady themes with genuinely affecting emotion and a terrific performance from Amy Adams.
Arrival is like the perfect first date – it’s beautiful, emotional, and makes you think about life in a whole new way. It’s not your typical alien movie, but that’s what makes it so special. Plus, Amy Adams gives a performance that will transport you to another world. If you’re looking for a movie that will leave you feeling hopeful and understanding, Arrival is the one for you.
Production Company(ies)
Chartoff-Winkler Productions,
Distributor
Paramount Pictures
Release Type
Theatrical, Theatrical (Wide)
Filming Location(s)
Montréal, Québec, Canada
MPAA / Certificate
Rated PG-13 for brief strong language
Year of Release
2016
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Dolby Digital
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Aspect ratio:2.39 : 1
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Runtime:1h 56m
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Language(s):English, Russian, Mandarin
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Nov 11, 2016 Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Feb 14, 2017
Genre(s)
Drama
Keyword(s)
Arrival, Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, Denis Villeneuve, Eric Heisserer, Shawn Levy, Dan Levine, Aaron Ryder, David Linde, Drama, Sci-Fi, PG-13, Box Office, $100.5M, Reviewed by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Kristen Lopez, K Austin Collins, Anne Cohen, Angie Han, Devika Girish, Brian Eggert, Alex Behan, Matt Brunson, Nathan Mattise, Jason Adams, Olly Richards, Linguistics, Extraterrestrial Visitors, Global War, Communication, Mystery, Time, Space, Thinking Person’s Sci-Fi, Emotional, Terrific Performance, Must-See Experience, Head Themes, Genuine Affecting Emotion, Meticulously Crafted, Jóhann Jóhannsson Score, Beautiful, Original, Cerebral, Hypnotic, Strange, Quintessential Science-Fiction Blockbuster, Singular, Transcendent Viewing Experience, Far More Focused on Humanity, Thought-Provoking Puzzler, Captivating, Atmospheric Spectacle, Expansive, Weighty, Complex Concepts, Communication, Perception of Time and Space, Strong Performances, Special Effects, Dark and Foreboding Tone, Smart, Sophisticated, Challenging, Remarkably Compelling
Worldwide gross: $203,388,186
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $250,675,647
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 582
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 27,336,494
US/Canada gross: $100,546,139
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $123,922,972
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 612
US/Canada opening weekend: $24,074,047
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $29,671,228
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 468
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): $47,000,000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): $57,927,432
Production budget ranking: 702
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): $31,193,922
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): $161,554,292
ROI to date (est.): 181%
ROI ranking: 679
Jeremy Renner – Ian Donnelly
Forest Whitaker – Colonel Weber
Michael Stuhlbarg – Agent Halpern
Mark O’Brien – Captain Marks
Tzi Ma – General Shang
Director(s)
Denis Villeneuve
Writer(s)
Eric Heisserer
Producer(s)
Shawn Levy, Dan Levine, Aaron Ryder, David Linde
Film Festivals
Venice, Telluride, Toronto
Awards & Nominations
Won 1 Oscar
70 wins & 269 nominations total
Academy Awards
Oscar Best Achievement in Sound Editing Winners, Oscar Nominees, Oscar Winners
All Critics (436) | Top Critics (89) | Fresh (412) | Rotten (24)
Arrival transcends the limitations that so often govern the less creative examples of the subgenre, instead using it as a loose conceptual foundation upon which to build a theoretically-informed examination of what precisely … makes us human.
August 25, 2018
Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
The Blue Lenses
TOP CRITIC
Arrival couldn’t have arrived (pun intended) at a better time.
November 20, 2017
Kristen Lopez
Culturess
TOP CRITIC
I think of Arrival in terms of color: the milky grays of the clouds rolling over the Montana plain; the bright blue of computer screens bouncing off the gray tents on the makeshift army compound.
August 10, 2017
K. Austin Collins
The Ringer
TOP CRITIC
Arrival isn’t exactly your typical alien movie — it’s so much better than that. This is a movie about how language actually influences the way you think and live your life.
June 28, 2017
Anne Cohen
Refinery29
TOP CRITIC
Everything about Arrival feels meticulously crafted, from the gorgeously composed shots to the Jóhann Jóhannsson score.
June 13, 2017 | Rating: 8/10
Angie Han
Slashfilm
TOP CRITIC
A Spielberg-Nolan lovechild of sorts, wondrous and mind-bending in equal parts, Denis Villeneuve’s latest is a quintessential science-fiction blockbuster steeped in genre traditions and made singular by Amy Adams’s transporting performance.
January 3, 2017
Devika Girish
Film Comment Magazine
TOP CRITIC
Both cerebral and achingly emotional, Arrival sustains a message about hope and understanding for a better humanity that audiences may need right now.
April 9, 2022 | Rating: 3.5/4
Brian Eggert
Deep Focus Review
One of the most beautiful, emotional and original science-fiction films of the last decade.
November 5, 2021
Alex Behan
Stuff.co.nz
The best film of 2016. A motion picture that turns out to be far more focused on humanity than on otherworldly visitors, it’s a transcendent viewing experience that gets under the skin and into the heart.
August 18, 2021 | Rating: 4/4
Matt Brunson
Film Frenzy
Arrival just might be the overall best movie of the decade with the way it cleverly examines what we believe while simultaneously delivering a tense, gripping sci-fi story.
July 28, 2021
Nathan Mattise
Ars Technica
Hypnotic and strange and beautiful – have I said beautiful fifteen times yet? Because it deserves that word no fewer than that many.
July 2, 2021
Jason Adams
My New Plaid Pants
An astonishingly beautiful film, both visually and emotionally.
April 23, 2021 | Rating: 5/5
Olly Richards
NME…
Plot
Linguistics professor Louise Banks leads an elite team of investigators when gigantic spaceships touchdown in 12 locations around the world. As nations teeter on the verge of global war, Banks and her crew must race against time to find a way to communicate with the extraterrestrial visitors. Hoping to unravel the mystery, she takes a chance that could threaten her life and quite possibly all of mankind.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
Amy Adams delivers a “terrific performance” in Arrival, according to the Critics Consensus on Fresh Kernels.
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