Snowden is a movie.
In the motion picture industry , a `` box office bomb '' or `` box office flop '' is a film that is considered highly unsuccessful or unprofitable during its theatrical run , often following significant hype regarding its cost , production , or marketing efforts . Snowden is a 2016 American-German biographical political thriller film directed by Oliver Stone and written by Stone and Kieran Fitzgerald , based on the books The Snowden Files by Luke Harding and Time of the Octopus by Anatoly Kucherena . The film was theatrically released in the United States on September 16 , 2016 , by Open Road Films and on September 22 in Germany . It received mixed reviews and was a box office disappointment , grossing $ 37.3 million worldwide against its $ 40 million budget .