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Poster for The Hard Way
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Released
1991 · FILM

The Hard Way

Hollywood action star Nick Lang teams up with a hard‑nosed NYPD lieutenant to learn real police work and earn a gritty TV role—only his meddling threatens to derail the lieutenant’s hunt for a serial killer.

There's only one way these two are going to get along...

Directed by
Runtime
111 min
ActionComedyCrime

Synopsis

Hollywood action star Nick Lang seeks to enhance his credibility as an actor and secure a role as a tough cop on a new television show. He arranges a deal with New York City Police Capt. Brix, who happens to be one of his fans. As part of the arrangement, Nick is paired with Detective Lt. John Moss to learn how to act like a real police officer. However, Nick's constant questioning and imitation of John begin to interfere with John's investigation into a serial killer.

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How many hands made this film

The scale of the collaboration

Principal cast & crew: 23

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 Tony LombardoShot by Donald McalpineScored by Arthur B RubinsteinDesigned by Philip Harrison

Box Office

1991 · Box office

Made its money back — grossed 2.7× 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

$65.6M

Budget$24.0M
Worldwide gross$65.6M
break-even (2.5×)

US & Canada: $25.9M 39% of worldwide · International: $39.7M (61%)

Opening weekend: $6.3M 24% of its US run.

Opening week (7-day): $8.2M32% of its US & Canada run.

Peak 1,622 theaters

Also known as

  • Auf die harte Tourde
  • La Manière fortefr
  • Insieme per forzait

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