American Splendor
A weary comic book writer struggles to turn his ordinary, often painful existence into compelling stories, while confronting the blur between his real life and the illustrated world that threatens to expose his deepest insecurities.
“Ordinary life is pretty complex stuff”
Synopsis
An original blend of fiction and reality explores the life of the comic book hero everyman, Harvey Pekar.
Credits
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How many hands made this film
The scale of the collaboration
A crew of 54+ credited
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 Robert PulciniShot by Terry StaceyScored by Mark SuozzoDesigned by Therese Deprez
Box Office
2003 · Box office
✅ Made its money back — grossed 3.0× 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
$6.0M
Opening week (7-day): $263K
Peak 6 theaters
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Cast & Crew
54 unique people credited
Top billed cast
Paul Giamatti
as Harvey Pekar
Shari Springer Berman
as Interviewer
Hope Davis
as Joyce Brabner
Harvey Pekar
as Real Harvey
Judah Friedlander
as Toby Radloff
Christopher Ambrose
as Superman
James Urbaniak
as Robert Crumb
Joey Krajcar
as Batman
Earl Billings
as Mr. Boats
Josh Hutcherson
as Robin
James Mccaffrey
as Fred
Cameron Carter
as Green Lantern
Supporting cast
37Maggie Moore
as Alice Quinn
Daniel Tay
as Young Harvey
Vivienne Benesch
as Lana
Mary Faktor
as Housewife
Larry John Meyers
as Throat Doctor
Donal Logue
as Stage Actor Harvey
Joyce Brabner
as Joyce Brabner
Molly Shannon
as Stage Actor Joyce
Toby Radloff
as Toby Radloff
Eytan Mirsky
as Guitarist
Chris Ambrose
as Superman
Madylin Sweeten
as Danielle
Ebon Moss Bachrach
as MTV Director
David Letterman
as Self (archive footage)
Kurt Loder
as Self (archive footage)
Barbara Brown
as Nurse
Danny Hoch
as Marty
Eli Ganias
as Pahls
Sylvia Kauders
as Old Jewish Lady
Rebecca Borger
as Cashier
Nick Baxter
as Mattress Guy #1
Allen Branstein
as Mattress Guy #2
Dick Prochaska
as WWII Patient
Charles Eduardos
as Doctor
Robert Pulcini
as Bob the Director
Bianca Santos
as Counter Girl
Mike Rad
as Rand
Amy K Harmon
as Cheery Waitress
Rob Grader
as Stage Manager
Terrence Sullivan
as Letterman Regular
Patrick Lafferty
as Yuppie
Jesse Perez
as Miguel
Jeff Peters
as Talk Show Host
Ola Creston
as PA #1
Robert J Williams
as Cancer Doctor
Jason Stevens
as Letterman Regular (voice)
Todd Cummings
as Talk Show Host (voice)
Directors
2Writers
4Producers
1Other crew
5Parents Guide
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