<Tr> <Th> Budget </Th> <Td> $50 million </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Box office </Th> <Td> $314.1 million </Td> </Tr> <P> As Good as It Gets is a 1997 American romantic comedy film directed by James L. Brooks . It stars Jack Nicholson as a misanthropic and obsessive - compulsive novelist, Helen Hunt as a single mother with a chronically ill son, and Greg Kinnear as a gay artist . The screenplay was written by Mark Andrus and Brooks . The paintings were created for the film by New York artist Billy Sullivan . </P> <P> Nicholson and Hunt won the Academy Award for Best Actor and Best Actress, respectively, making As Good As It Gets the most recent film to win both of the lead acting awards, and the first since 1991's The Silence of the Lambs . It is ranked 140th on Empire magazine's "The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time" list . </P>

Who starred in as good as it gets