The Jerk
A rags to riches to rags story.
After discovering he's not really black like the rest of his family, likable dimwit Navin Johnson sets off on a hilarious misadventure that takes him from rags to riches and back again.The slaphappy jerk strikes it rich, but life in the fast lane isn't all it's cracked up to be and, in the end, all that really matters to Johnson is his true love.
- Director
- Carl Reiner
- Signature
- Craft · Humour · Tension
- Worldwide
- $100M
Who's in it
Cast
The billed ensemble, with character names. Open any performer for their Nutevio filmography.
The Nutevio profile
Movie DNA
How The Jerk 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.
After discovering he's not really black like the rest of his family, likable dimwit Navin Johnson sets off on a hilarious misadventure that takes him from rags to riches and back again. The slaphappy jerk strikes it rich, but life in the fast lane isn't all it's cracked up to be and, in the end, all that really matters to Johnson is his true love.
Where to watch
Streaming
Availability verified against regional listings.
Checking regional listings…
The numbers
Box Office & Release
The Jerk returned 25.0× its budget worldwide.
- Budget
- $4M
- Opening weekend
- —
- Domestic gross
- —
- International gross
- —
- Worldwide gross
- $100M
- Release date
- Dec 14, 1979
- Runtime
- 1h 34m
- 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.
Watch
