Down by Law backdrop
Down by Law poster
#10,778 All-time worldwide
#148 1986 releases

Movie profile

Down by Law

1986 · 106 min · Island Pictures

Crime Drama Comedy
IMDb FilmDB Where to watch

Box office snapshot

Financial performance

Reference figures based on available reported data.
Worldwide gross $1.5M
Budget $1.1M
Gross minus budget $429,206
ROI 1.39x

Domestic gross

$764,603

Estimated from worldwide gross

International gross

$764,603

Estimated from worldwide gross

Opening weekend

$137,629

Estimated from worldwide gross

Ranking context

Where Down by Law ranks

Positioned across the all-time chart, release year, studio, franchise and genre indexes where enough mapped data exists.
Open rankings
All-time worldwide #10,778 All-time chart position of 12,922 titles Compared with every rankable movie in the current worldwide dataset. 1986 releases #148 Release-year chart position of 206 titles Ranked against movies released in 1986. Studio / company #3 Island Pictures of 4 titles Position inside the mapped Island Pictures movie set. Primary genre #1,657 Crime of 1,921 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.

#10,775 Beowulf 1999 · $1.5M #10,776 Lianna 1983 · $1.5M #10,777 Tempting Hearts 2021 · $1.5M #10,779 Yi Yi 2000 · $1.5M #10,780 Josh & S.A.M. 1993 · $1.5M #10,781 Three Colors: Blue 1993 · $1.5M

Quick answer

How did Down by Law (1986) perform at the box office?

High confidence

Down by Law (1986) earned a reported $1.5M worldwide against a reported $1.1M production budget. Its gross-minus-budget figure is about $429.2K. The current gross-to-budget multiple is 1.39x. In this database it currently ranks #10,778 in the current all-time worldwide chart set and #148 among 1986 releases.

Worldwide gross
$1,529,206
Budget
$1,100,000
Gross minus budget
$429,206
ROI
1.39x
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

A disc jockey, a pimp and an Italian tourist escape from jail in New Orleans.

Movie facts

Production details

Release date
Sep 20, 1986
Production
Island Pictures, Black Snake, Grokenberger Film Produktion
Countries
US, DE

Related indexes

Browse related box office pages

Studio / production companyIsland Pictures Release year chart1986 box office Genre chartCrime Genre chartDrama Genre chartComedy

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AI summary

Why this movie matters

Released in 1986, Down by Law is positioned in this dataset as a Crime, Drama, Comedy title from Island Pictures. Its box office profile shows that available worldwide gross is $1.5M, reported production budget is $1.1M, gross-minus-budget is $429,206, ROI is 1.39x. For comparison, it currently sits #10,778 all-time in the current chart set and #148 among 1986 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.