12 Angry Men (1957)
Drama
97Kernel Score — Universal Acclaim, 0 reviews
The Kernel take
A 97 Metascore on a $0.398M budget represents a rare critical miracle: this modest courtroom thriller has become a generational masterpiece that the box office, at $4.36M worldwide, never quite caught up with.
Director track record: Sidney Lumet
12 Angry Men sits well above Sidney Lumet's own 66.4-point average across 17 scored films — his best-reviewed work to date, in a filmography that would go on to produce Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (86) as his next major critical success.
Lead track record: Martin Balsam
The film sits well above Martin Balsam's own 61.3-point average across 18 scored films, but trails his appearance in Psycho (97), the highest-reviewed work of his career.
Box office
Budget $0.4M · Box office $4.4M