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Released
1988 · FILM

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

A suave con artist and his crass rival battle each other in a high‑stakes contest to swindle a wealthy tourist out of $50,000 before the French Riviera’s glittering elite forces the loser to pack their bags.

“Nice guys finish last. Meet the winners.”

Directed by
Frank Oz, Antoine Sabarros
Written by
Dale Launer, Stanley Shapiro
Rated
MPA · PG
Runtime
110 min
ComedyCrime
Streaming on
  • MGM+

Synopsis

Lawrence Jamieson, a con artist, has long lived in a luxurious coastal resort, benefiting from the spoils of his scams. His comfortable existence is disrupted when Freddy Benson, a rival, arrives and begins using crude methods that interfere with Lawrence's more refined schemes. Mistaking Freddy for the notorious conman known as "The Jackal," Lawrence decides to eliminate him. Relying on his confidence in his own deceptive abilities, he proposes a competition to Freddy: the first to swindle American heiress Janet Colgate out of $50,000 will be allowed to remain in the resort, while the loser must leave.

Credits

Actors
Editor
Production Designer
Director of Photography
Writers
Directors

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How many hands made this film

The scale of the collaboration

A crew of 137+ 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 Stephen A RotterShot by Michael BallhausScored by Miles GoodmanDesigned by Roy WalkerSound by Richard BeggsCostumes by Marit Allen

Box Office

1988 · Box office

💰 Box-office hit — grossed 6.5× 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

$42.0M

Budget$6.5M
Worldwide gross$42.0M
break-even (2.5×)

Opening weekend: $3.8M — 9% of its US run. It had legs — it kept earning long after opening weekend.

Opening week (7-day): $7.2M — 17% of its US & Canada run.

Peak 1,466 theaters

Versions & cuts

  • TV· 104 min

Also known as

  • Zwei hinreissend verdorbene Schurkende
  • Zwei hinreißend verdorbene Schurkende
  • Un par de seductoreses
  • Le Plus Escroc des deuxfr
  • Due figli di...it
  • (Bulgarian)От мошеник нагоре
Release dates around the world5 countries · show
  • United StatesDec 14, 1988
  • CanadaDec 16, 1988
  • AustraliaJan 12, 1989
  • BrazilFeb 24, 1989
  • ArgentinaMar 16, 1989

Production & Distribution

Production
Orion Pictures
Distributors
Orion PicturesSpentzos FilmRoadshow Films20th Century Fox
Other companiesARRI Munich, Cinema Research, D. Bassett & Associates, Deluxe Entertainment Services, Dolby Stereo

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