Big Top Pee-wee backdrop
Big Top Pee-wee poster
#6,490 All-time worldwide
#67 1988 releases

Movie profile

Big Top Pee-wee

1988 · 86 min · Paramount Pictures

Comedy Family
IMDb FilmDB Where to watch

Box office snapshot

Financial performance

Reference figures based on available reported data.
Worldwide gross $15.1M
Budget $20.0M
Gross minus budget -$4.9M
ROI 0.76x

Domestic gross

$6.5M

Estimated from worldwide gross

International gross

$8.6M

Estimated from worldwide gross

Opening weekend

$2.0M

Estimated from worldwide gross

Ranking context

Where Big Top Pee-wee ranks

Positioned across the all-time chart, release year, studio, franchise and genre indexes where enough mapped data exists.
Open rankings
All-time worldwide #6,490 All-time chart position of 12,922 titles Compared with every rankable movie in the current worldwide dataset. 1988 releases #67 Release-year chart position of 248 titles Ranked against movies released in 1988. Studio / company #265 Paramount Pictures of 424 titles Position inside the mapped Paramount Pictures movie set. Franchise #2 Pee Wee's of 2 titles Ranked against mapped movies from the same franchise. Primary genre #2,521 Comedy of 4,840 titles Genre context based on the first mapped genre on this profile.

Nearby worldwide ranks

Comparable titles immediately around this movie by reported worldwide gross.

#6,487 Flowers in the Attic 1987 · $15.2M #6,488 Death Whisperer 2023 · $15.2M #6,489 Extraordinary Measures 2010 · $15.1M #6,491 Muriel's Wedding 1994 · $15.1M #6,492 Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers 1995 · $15.1M #6,493 Dead Man on Campus 1998 · $15.1M

Quick answer

How did Big Top Pee-wee (1988) perform at the box office?

High confidence

Big Top Pee-wee (1988) earned a reported $15.1M worldwide against a reported $20.0M production budget. Its gross-minus-budget figure is about -$4.9M. The current gross-to-budget multiple is 0.76x. In this database it currently ranks #6,490 in the current all-time worldwide chart set and #67 among 1988 releases.

Worldwide gross
$15,122,000
Budget
$20,000,000
Gross minus budget
-$4,878,000
ROI
0.76x
Source: TMDb. Last updated: Jul 13, 2026. View source Gross-minus-budget is not studio net profit. It excludes marketing, distribution fees, revenue splits, tax incentives and later home/streaming revenue.

Synopsis

Story

Paul Reubens stars as Pee-wee Herman in his second full-length film about a farmer who joins the circus after a storm drops a big tent in his front yard. Pee-wee, along with an outlandish cast of animals and circus performers, puts on the best show ever.

Movie facts

Production details

Release date
Jul 22, 1988
Production
Paramount Pictures
Countries
US

Related indexes

Browse related box office pages

Studio / production companyParamount Pictures FranchisePee Wee's Release year chart1988 box office Genre chartComedy Genre chartFamily

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AI summary

Why this movie matters

Released in 1988, Big Top Pee-wee is positioned in this dataset as a Comedy, Family title from Paramount Pictures. Its box office profile shows that available worldwide gross is $15.1M, reported production budget is $20.0M, gross-minus-budget is -$4.9M, ROI is 0.76x. For comparison, it currently sits #6,490 all-time in the current chart set and #67 among 1988 releases. Streaming availability should be checked against the selected United States region because provider rights can change.

AI-generated contextual summary based on available movie, genre, ranking and box office data. It does not replace official distributor notes or financial reporting.
Data noteGross minus budget is not studio net profit. It excludes marketing, distribution fees, revenue splits, tax incentives and downstream revenue. Domestic, international and opening weekend figures marked as estimated are modelled estimates.