Pain & Gain

Pain & Gain
Theatrical release poster
Directed byMichael Bay
Screenplay byChristopher Markus
Stephen McFeely
Based onPain & Gain
by Pete Collins
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyBen Seresin
Edited by
  • Thomas A. Muldoon
  • Joel Negron
Music bySteve Jablonsky
Production
companies
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release dates
  • April 11, 2013 (2013-04-11) (Miami premiere)
  • April 26, 2013 (2013-04-26) (United States)
Running time
129 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$26 million
Box office$86.2 million

Pain & Gain is a 2013 American black comedy action crime film directed by Michael Bay and written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. It is based on a 1999 series of Miami New Times articles by Pete Collins about the activities of the Sun Gym gang, a group of bodybuilding ex-convicts convicted of kidnapping, extortion, torture, and murder in Miami in the mid-1990s. It stars Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson, and Anthony Mackie as members of the gang, with supporting roles played by Tony Shalhoub and Ed Harris. The title is a play on the fitness adage "no pain, no gain".

Pain & Gain premiered in Miami on April 11, 2013, before Paramount Pictures released it in theatres on April 26. The film received mixed reviews; it was praised for its script and performances, but criticized for its directing, historical inaccuracies, and overreliance on violence. A commercial success, it grossed $86 million worldwide against a $26 million production budget. Marc Schiller, the Sun Gym gang's primary victim who was depicted in the film as Victor Kershaw, sued the production company over his portrayal.