Breaking Away backdrop
Breaking Away poster
#5,672 All-time worldwide
#41 1979 releases

Movie profile

Breaking Away

1979 · 101 min · 20th Century Fox

Drama Comedy
IMDb FilmDB Where to watch

Box office snapshot

Financial performance

Reference figures based on available reported data.
Worldwide gross $20.0M
Budget $2.3M
Gross minus budget $17.7M
ROI 8.70x

Domestic gross

$10.0M

Estimated from worldwide gross

International gross

$10.0M

Estimated from worldwide gross

Opening weekend

$1.8M

Estimated from worldwide gross

Ranking context

Where Breaking Away ranks

Positioned across the all-time chart, release year, studio, franchise and genre indexes where enough mapped data exists.
Open rankings
All-time worldwide #5,672 All-time chart position of 12,922 titles Compared with every rankable movie in the current worldwide dataset. 1979 releases #41 Release-year chart position of 94 titles Ranked against movies released in 1979. Studio / company #95 20th Century Fox of 209 titles Position inside the mapped 20th Century Fox movie set. Primary genre #2,280 Drama of 5,859 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.

#5,669 Evening 2007 · $20.0M #5,670 With Honors 1994 · $20.0M #5,671 The Company You Keep 2012 · $20.0M #5,705 Like Father, Like Son 2013 · $20.0M #5,706 Unfaithfully Yours 1984 · $19.9M #5,707 Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever 2002 · $19.9M

Quick answer

How did Breaking Away (1979) perform at the box office?

High confidence

Breaking Away (1979) earned a reported $20.0M worldwide against a reported $2.3M production budget. Its gross-minus-budget figure is about $17.7M. The current gross-to-budget multiple is 8.70x. In this database it currently ranks #5,672 in the current all-time worldwide chart set and #41 among 1979 releases.

Worldwide gross
$20,000,000
Budget
$2,300,000
Gross minus budget
$17,700,000
ROI
8.70x
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

Dave, nineteen, has just graduated high school, with his three friends: the comical Cyril, the warm hearted but short-tempered Moocher, and the athletic, spiteful but good-hearted Mike. Now, Dave enjoys racing bikes and hopes to race the Italians one day, and even takes up the Italian culture, much to his friends' and parents' annoyance.

Movie facts

Production details

Release date
May 24, 1979
Production
20th Century Fox
Countries
US

Related indexes

Browse related box office pages

Studio / production company20th Century Fox Release year chart1979 box office Genre chartDrama Genre chartComedy

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AI summary

Why this movie matters

Released in 1979, Breaking Away is positioned in this dataset as a Drama, Comedy title from 20th Century Fox. Its box office profile shows that available worldwide gross is $20.0M, reported production budget is $2.3M, gross-minus-budget is $17.7M, ROI is 8.70x. For comparison, it currently sits #5,672 all-time in the current chart set and #41 among 1979 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.