Bad Santa is a 2003 American Christmas black comedy film directed by Terry Zwigoff and written by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa. It stars Billy Bob Thornton, Tony Cox, Lauren Graham, Brett Kelly, Lauren Tom, John Ritter, and Bernie Mac. It was Ritter’s last live-action film appearance before his death on September 11, 2003 (his remaining final films, Clifford’s Really Big Movie and Stanley’s Dinosaur Round-Up, were animated films); the film was dedicated to his memory. The Coen brothers are credited as executive producers. The film was released in the United States on November 26, 2003, and was screened out of competition at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.[2] It received generally positive reviews and was a commercial success.
An unrated version was released on DVD on March 5, 2004 and on Blu-ray Disc on November 20, 2007 as Bad(der) Santa. A director’s cut DVD was released in November 2006; it features Zwigoff’s cut of the film (including an audio commentary with him and the film’s editor), which is three minutes shorter than the theatrical cut and ten minutes shorter than the unrated version. A sequel, Bad Santa 2, was released on November 23, 2016.