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Poster for Harlem Nights
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Released
1989 · FILM

Harlem Nights

Sugar “Ray” battles ruthless gangsters and corrupt police to keep his Harlem nightclub thriving, risking everything as the city’s underworld closes in.

They're up to something big.

Directed by
Written by
Runtime
116 min
ComedyCrimeDrama

Synopsis

"Sugar" Ray runs an illegal casino and faces the threats of ruthless gangsters and corrupt police who seek to drive him out of business. In the context of organized crime and police corruption during the 1920s, any underhanded tactic is considered acceptable.

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How many hands made this film

The scale of the collaboration

Principal cast & crew: 20

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 Alan BalsamShot by Woody OmensScored by Herbie HancockDesigned by Lawrence G Paull

Box Office

1989 · Box office

⚖️ Fell short of break-even — grossed 2.0× 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

$60.9M

Budget$30.0M
Worldwide gross$60.9M
break-even (2.5×)

Opening weekend: $16.1M 26% of its US run.

Opening week (7-day): $23.7M39% of its US & Canada run.

Peak 2,180 theaters

Also known as

  • Les Nuits de Harlemfr

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