Absence of Malice

Absence of Malice

“In America can a man be guilty until proven innocent?”

November 19, 1981PG1h 56mTMDB ★ 6.6
Letterboxd
3.36/5
11169 reviews

Megan Carter is a reporter duped into running an untrue story on Michael Gallagher, a suspected racketeer. He has an alibi for the time his crime was allegedly committed—but it involves an innocent party. When he tells Carter the truth and the newspaper runs it, tragedy follows, forcing Carter to face up to the responsibilities of her job when she is confronted by Gallagher.

Genres

Drama, Romance, Crime

Studio

Mirage Enterprises

Language

en

Status

Released

Box Office

How Absence of Malice performed

Budget

$12.0M

Worldwide Gross

$40.7M

Gross Profit

$28.7M

Return

3.4× budget

Opening Wknd (est.)

$6M

Domestic (est.)
International (est.)
$20M$21M

Source: TMDB. Domestic/international split (~48/52, genre-typical) and the opening-weekend figure (30% of the domestic run, typical for Drama) are MoviesRankd estimates. Profit is gross revenue minus production budget and excludes marketing — studios typically need ~2–2.5× budget to break even.

Where to Watch

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© 2026 MoviesRankd. Data from TMDB.