Cheaper by the Dozen
All actors and roles (10)
All team (40)
Short description
Tom and Kate Baker have built their lives around a large family, raising twelve children in a small Illinois town. When Tom, a football coach, is offered the job he has long wanted at Northwestern University, the whole household moves to Chicago. Kate, a writer, soon gets her own chance at a career breakthrough when her memoir is published, which takes her away from home just as Tom is starting his new position. Stretched between his coaching duties and looking after the children on his own, Tom finds the arrangement harder than expected, and the kids, unhappy about the move, do not make things easier. The film is a remake of the 1950 movie of the same name.
Shawn Levy directed; it was the second of the seventeen films he has directed in chronological order, following Big Fat Liar and preceding Just Married. Joel Cohen, Alec Sokolow and Sam Harper wrote the screenplay, and Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt star as Tom and Kate, with Hilary Duff, Tom Welling, Piper Perabo and Kevin G. Schmidt among the large credited cast.
Released in December 2003, the film cost about 40 million dollars and took roughly 190 million dollars worldwide, a strong return on its budget. On IMDb it holds 5.9 out of 10 from around 116,000 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 6.3 from about 3,000 votes. A critics' rating of 4.6 from 118 reviews places it below both audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Initially, Jared Padalecki was supposed to play Charlie Baker, but it turned out he was unavailable. He was then asked to play a bully, because someone taller than Tom Welling, who eventually played Baker, was needed.
- The Gilbreth family, which served as the prototype for the family of the main characters, had 6 sons and 6 daughters, and there were no twins among the children. The Gilbreth surname is mentioned several times throughout the film (it is Kate's maiden name, played by Bonnie Hunt).
- The scene where the twins throw a huge bag of dog food was not in the script. The twins came up with it themselves.
- Chloe Greenfield auditioned for the role of one of the twin sisters.
- Mel Gibson, Tim Allen, Kurt Russell, Tom Hanks, and Robin Williams were considered for the role of Tom Baker.
- At the 17th minute of the film, while Tom is talking to Nora on the phone, Steve Martin looks directly into the camera for a fraction of a second.
- Charlie drives a 1986 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme.
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