American Gangster
There are two sides to the American dream.
Loosely based on the criminal career of Frank Lucas, a gangster from La Grange, North Carolina, who smuggled heroin into the United States on American service planes returning from the Vietnam War, before being detained by a task force led by Newark Detective Richie Roberts.
- Director
- Ridley Scott
- Signature
- Drama · Craft · Tension
- Worldwide
- $270M
Who's in it
Cast
The billed ensemble, with character names. Open any performer for their Nutevio filmography.
The Nutevio profile
Movie DNA
How American Gangster actually feels to watch, measured on the twelve traits our editors track across every Nutevio title.
Perfect if you enjoyed
Story overview
What It's About
Spoiler-free. Read the analysis below for the full argument.
Loosely based on the criminal career of Frank Lucas, a gangster from La Grange, North Carolina, who smuggled heroin into the United States on American service planes returning from the Vietnam War, before being detained by a task force led by Newark Detective Richie Roberts.
Where to watch
Streaming
Availability verified against regional listings.
Checking regional listings…
Why We Recommend It
Why It's Ranked
American Gangster appears in 1 Nutevio collection. Here is the argument behind each placement.
- Top 100 Crime Movies Ranked #72
Placed at #72 by the Nutevio ranking model. An editor's written case is on the way.
The record
Awards
0 wins · 2 nominations
Academy Awards
No wins yet · 2 nominations
- WinnerAcademy Award for Best Production Design
- WinnerAcademy Award for Best Supporting Actress
The numbers
Box Office & Release
American Gangster returned 2.7× its budget worldwide.
- Budget
- $100M
- Opening weekend
- —
- Domestic gross
- —
- International gross
- —
- Worldwide gross
- $270M
- Release date
- Nov 2, 2007
- Runtime
- 2h 37m
- MPAA rating
- —
- Language
- English
- Country
- United States of America
Figures from the verified production record. Fields we cannot source are left blank rather than estimated.
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