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Poster for Above the Law
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Released
1988 · FILM

Above the Law

Ex‑CIA operative and aikido master Nico Toscani must expose a deadly weapons conspiracy hidden in Chicago’s underworld before the rogue syndicate detonates its explosive cargo and ignites a citywide war.

He's a cop who believes no one is above the law.

Directed by
Rated
MPA · R
Runtime
99 min
ActionCrimeDrama

Synopsis

Nico Toscani is an Italian immigrant and American patriot who previously worked as a CIA agent. He is an aikido specialist and serves as an unorthodox police officer in Chicago. He is known for his strong commitment to his job and his personalized approach to justice, which includes expert and thorough methods of physical enforcement.

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How many hands made this film

The scale of the collaboration

Principal cast & crew: 21

These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.

Why a floor?

This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.

Craft leads on file

Edited by Michael BrownShot by Robert SteadmanScored by David Michael FrankDesigned by Maher Ahmad

Box Office

1988 · Box office

Made its money back — grossed 2.5× its budget

Why 2.5×?

Cinemas keep roughly half of every ticket sold, and a wide release’s marketing often costs about as much again as the film — so a movie needs to gross around 2.5× its production budget just to break even theatrically. It’s a rule of thumb, not the studio’s ledger (home video and streaming come later).

Worldwide gross

$18.9M

Budget$7.5M
Worldwide gross$18.9M
break-even (2.5×)

Opening weekend: $2.0M 11% of its US run. It had legs — it kept earning long after opening weekend.

Opening week (7-day): $2.7M14% of its US & Canada run.

Peak 350 theaters

Also known as

  • Nicode
  • Nicofr
  • Nicoit

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