Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy

"They bring you the news so you don't have to get it yourself."

2004 1h 35m EN

👍

6.7

SOLID

🍅

66%

FRESH

👌

METACRITIC

⭐

7.1

IMDB

★6.7TMDB · 4,782🍅66%Rotten Tomatoes●63Metacritic★7.1IMDB · 398,569

Comedy

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

It's the 1970s and San Diego anchorman Ron Burgundy is the top dog in local TV, but that's all about to change when ambitious reporter Veronica Corningstone arrives as a new employee at his station.

“They bring you the news so you don't have to get it yourself.”

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Cast

Will Ferrell
Ron Burgundy
Christina Applegate
Veronica Corningstone
Paul Rudd
Brian Fantana
Steve Carell
Brick Tamland
David Koechner
Champ Kind
Fred Willard
Ed Harken
Chris Parnell
Garth Holliday
Kathryn Hahn
Helen

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Adam McKay
Writers: Will Ferrell, Adam McKay
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 3.5× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 22 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "Anchorman Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Adam McKay, shot by Thomas E. Ackerman. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Alex Wurman. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Brent White shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Will Ferrell and Christina Applegate and Paul Rudd carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "They bring you the news so you don't have to get it yourself.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Adam McKay directs. Thomas E. Ackerman behind the camera. Alex Wurman scores. Brent White cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Made its money back 3.5× over at the box office.
2Released 22 years ago.
3Part of the "Anchorman Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
4Directed by Adam McKay, shot by Thomas E. Ackerman. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Alex Wurman. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Brent White shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Will Ferrell and Christina Applegate and Paul Rudd carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "They bring you the news so you don't have to get it yourself.".
9IMDB entry: tt0357413 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 18 themes, including "1970s", "journalism", "sexism", "ladder".
11Released under 14 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Thomas E. Ackerman
Original score: Alex Wurman
Editing: Brent White
Production design: Clayton Hartley
Costume design: Debra McGuire
Makeup / hair: Kimberly Greene
VFX supervisor: Ray McIntyre Jr.
Stunt coordinator: Rick Avery
Runtime: 95 min · 1h 35m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $26,000,000
Box office: $90,574,188
Return: 348% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
Rotten Tomatoes: 66% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 63/100
IMDB rating: 7.1/10 · 398,569 votes
MPAA: PG-13

Awards

1 win & 13 nominations total

Part of

Anchorman Collection

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, or simply Anchorman, is a 2004 comedy film directed by Adam McKay, produced by Judd Apatow, starring Will Ferrell, and written by McKay and Ferrell. The film is a tongue-in-cheek take on the culture of the 1970s, particularly the news Action News format. It portrays a San Diego TV station where Ferrell's title character clashes with his new female counterpart. A companion film assembled from outtakes and abandoned subplots, titled Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie, was released straight-to-DVD in late 2004. A sequel, Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, was released on December 18, 2013.

Also by

Adam McKay

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Andre Gonzales2023-04-17
★ 8/10
Super funny. Love this movie. One of my favorite movies.
TheFilmCritics.org2026-08-18
★ 5/10
There is a fine line between gloriously stupid and simply stupid, and Anchorman spends a lot of time wandering around on the wrong side of it. The film follows San Diego newsman Ron Burgundy, a preening relic of macho television who suddenly finds his kingdom threatened by the arrival of an ambitious female reporter. It is a premise with plenty of comic potential, but the movie rarely knows when to stop pushing the joke. Will Ferrell is undeniably committed to the character. His performance has a cartoonish confidence that occasionally produces a genuinely funny moment, while the absurd supporting cast gives the newsroom an appropriately bizarre atmosphere. The movie has a loose, anything-goes quality that can be charming when the silliness clicks. Unfortunately, those moments are far less frequent than the film seems to believe. The biggest problem is that it simply isn’t very funny. Anchorman throws joke after joke at the screen, but volume isn’t the same thing as quality. Some gags land through sheer ridiculousness, while others feel like sketches that were stretched until they stopped being funny. The movie’s stupidity could have been its greatest asset if it had been paired with sharper writing; instead, too much of it feels like randomness being mistaken for wit. The film wants Ron’s sexism to be part of the joke, but it keeps returning to the same material until the joke becomes the movie itself. What might have worked as occasional satire of insecure, chauvinistic men instead starts to feel like the entire punchline is simply, “Women are stupid.” The misogyny overstays its welcome so badly that it becomes difficult to laugh at the characters rather than wonder why the film is still making the same point. There is also a strange missed opportunity in the rivalry between Ron and Veronica. The premise could have produced a much sharper satire about changing workplace attitudes and male insecurity, but the movie often settles for cartoonish insults and juvenile behavior. Christina Applegate brings enough intelligence and poise to make Veronica compelling, yet the script frequently treats her as a target rather than giving her the material she deserves. Anchorman has developed a reputation as a comedy classic, and there is certainly a cultish energy to its cast and absurdist style. But watching it now, the laughs are inconsistent and the central joke has aged particularly poorly. There are flashes of inspired stupidity here, but not enough to overcome a movie that mistakes repetition for escalation. At its best, it is gleefully ridiculous; at its worst, it is just ridiculous. 5/10.