Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid backdrop
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid poster
#5,958 All-time worldwide
#43 1982 releases

Movie profile

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid

1982 · 89 min · Universal Pictures

Comedy Mystery Crime
IMDb FilmDB Where to watch

Box office snapshot

Financial performance

Reference figures based on available reported data.
Worldwide gross $18.2M
Budget $9.0M
Gross minus budget $9.2M
ROI 2.02x

Domestic gross

$7.3M

Estimated from worldwide gross

International gross

$10.9M

Estimated from worldwide gross

Opening weekend

$2.0M

Estimated from worldwide gross

Ranking context

Where Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid ranks

Positioned across the all-time chart, release year, studio, franchise and genre indexes where enough mapped data exists.
Open rankings
All-time worldwide #5,958 All-time chart position of 12,922 titles Compared with every rankable movie in the current worldwide dataset. 1982 releases #43 Release-year chart position of 157 titles Ranked against movies released in 1982. Studio / company #249 Universal Pictures of 377 titles Position inside the mapped Universal Pictures movie set. Primary genre #2,329 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.

#5,953 The Case for Christ 2017 · $18.2M #5,953 Asura: The City of Madness 2016 · $18.2M #5,957 Daddy Day Camp 2007 · $18.2M #5,959 About My Father 2023 · $18.2M #5,960 Soul Kitchen 2009 · $18.2M #5,961 Hell Fest 2018 · $18.2M

Quick answer

How did Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982) perform at the box office?

High confidence

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982) earned a reported $18.2M worldwide against a reported $9.0M production budget. Its gross-minus-budget figure is about $9.2M. The current gross-to-budget multiple is 2.02x. In this database it currently ranks #5,958 in the current all-time worldwide chart set and #43 among 1982 releases.

Worldwide gross
$18,196,170
Budget
$9,000,000
Gross minus budget
$9,196,170
ROI
2.02x
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

Juliet Forrest is convinced that the reported death of her father in a mountain car crash was no accident. Her father was a prominent cheese scientist working on a secret recipe. To prove it was murder, she enlists the services of private eye Rigby Reardon. He finds a slip of paper containing a list of people who are 'The Friends and Enemies of Carlotta'.

Movie facts

Production details

Release date
May 21, 1982
Production
Universal Pictures, Aspen Film Society
Countries
US

Related indexes

Browse related box office pages

Studio / production companyUniversal Pictures Release year chart1982 box office Genre chartComedy Genre chartMystery Genre chartCrime

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AI summary

Why this movie matters

Released in 1982, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid is positioned in this dataset as a Comedy, Mystery, Crime title from Universal Pictures. Its box office profile shows that available worldwide gross is $18.2M, reported production budget is $9.0M, gross-minus-budget is $9.2M, ROI is 2.02x. For comparison, it currently sits #5,958 all-time in the current chart set and #43 among 1982 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.