Drugstore Cowboy backdrop
Drugstore Cowboy poster
#9,290 All-time worldwide
#114 1989 releases

Movie profile

Drugstore Cowboy

1989 · 102 min · Avenue Pictures

Drama Crime
IMDb FilmDB Where to watch

Box office snapshot

Financial performance

Reference figures based on available reported data.
Worldwide gross $4.7M
Budget $2.5M
Gross minus budget $2.2M
ROI 1.88x

Domestic gross

$2.4M

Estimated from worldwide gross

International gross

$2.4M

Estimated from worldwide gross

Opening weekend

$423,000

Estimated from worldwide gross

Ranking context

Where Drugstore Cowboy ranks

Positioned across the all-time chart, release year, studio, franchise and genre indexes where enough mapped data exists.
Open rankings
All-time worldwide #9,290 All-time chart position of 12,922 titles Compared with every rankable movie in the current worldwide dataset. 1989 releases #114 Release-year chart position of 218 titles Ranked against movies released in 1989. Studio / company #3 Avenue Pictures of 4 titles Position inside the mapped Avenue Pictures movie set. Primary genre #3,994 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.

#9,287 King Kong Lives 1986 · $4.7M #9,288 Your Friends & Neighbors 1998 · $4.7M #9,289 Under the Open Sky 2021 · $4.7M #9,295 Vysehrad: Fylm 2022 · $4.7M #9,296 True Identity 1991 · $4.7M #9,297 Okkadu 2003 · $4.7M

Quick answer

How did Drugstore Cowboy (1989) perform at the box office?

High confidence

Drugstore Cowboy (1989) earned a reported $4.7M worldwide against a reported $2.5M production budget. Its gross-minus-budget figure is about $2.2M. The current gross-to-budget multiple is 1.88x. In this database it currently ranks #9,290 in the current all-time worldwide chart set and #114 among 1989 releases.

Worldwide gross
$4,700,000
Budget
$2,500,000
Gross minus budget
$2,200,000
ROI
1.88x
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

Portland, Oregon, 1971. Bob Hughes is the charismatic leader of a peculiar quartet, formed by his wife, Dianne, and another couple, Rick and Nadine, who skillfully steal from drugstores and hospital medicine cabinets in order to appease their insatiable need for drugs. But neither fun nor luck last forever.

Movie facts

Production details

Release date
Oct 20, 1989
Production
Avenue Pictures
Countries
US

Related indexes

Browse related box office pages

Studio / production companyAvenue Pictures Release year chart1989 box office Genre chartDrama Genre chartCrime

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AI summary

Why this movie matters

Released in 1989, Drugstore Cowboy is positioned in this dataset as a Drama, Crime title from Avenue Pictures. Its box office profile shows that available worldwide gross is $4.7M, reported production budget is $2.5M, gross-minus-budget is $2.2M, ROI is 1.88x. For comparison, it currently sits #9,290 all-time in the current chart set and #114 among 1989 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.