2011 American film directed by David Frankel
The Big Year is a 2011 American observational comedy film starring Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson, directed by David Frankel and written by Howard Franklin. The film was based on the 2004 non-fiction book The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature and Fowl Obsession by Mark Obmascik. The book follows three men on a quest for a Big Year – a competition among birders to see who can spot and identify the greatest number of bird species in North America (north of Mexico) in a calendar year. The three actual birders were Sandy Komito, Al Levantin, and Greg Miller, who were chasing Komito's prior record. The film uses the same premise with fictional characters.
Filming for The Big Year took place from May to July 2010. The film was released by 20th Century Fox on October 14, 2011, in the United States. The Big Year received generally mixed reviews, although the three leads' performances were praised. However, it was a box office bomb, only grossing $7.4 million worldwide against a $41 million budget.
Plot summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.