How to Get Ahead in Advertising backdrop
How to Get Ahead in Advertising poster
#11,731 All-time worldwide
#175 1989 releases

Movie profile

How to Get Ahead in Advertising

1989 · 95 min · Virgin Films

Fantasy Comedy Drama
IMDb FilmDB Where to watch

Box office snapshot

Financial performance

Reference figures based on available reported data.
Worldwide gross $418,053
Budget —
Gross minus budget —
ROI —

Domestic gross

$209,027

Estimated from worldwide gross

International gross

$209,026

Estimated from worldwide gross

Opening weekend

$37,625

Estimated from worldwide gross

Ranking context

Where How to Get Ahead in Advertising ranks

Positioned across the all-time chart, release year, studio, franchise and genre indexes where enough mapped data exists.
Open rankings
All-time worldwide #11,731 All-time chart position of 12,922 titles Compared with every rankable movie in the current worldwide dataset. 1989 releases #175 Release-year chart position of 218 titles Ranked against movies released in 1989. Primary genre #1,232 Fantasy of 1,285 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.

#11,727 The Envy of Gods 2000 · $420,000 #11,729 Killing Zoe 1993 · $418,961 #11,730 True Colors 1991 · $418,807 #11,732 Kaalidas 2 2026 · $417,137 #11,733 Tocando fondo 1993 · $415,529 #11,734 3 Ninjas Knuckle Up 1995 · $413,479

Quick answer

How did How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989) perform at the box office?

Medium confidence

How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989) has a reported worldwide box office gross of $418.1K. In this database it currently ranks #11,731 in the current all-time worldwide chart set and #175 among 1989 releases.

Worldwide gross
$418,053
Budget
Not available
Gross minus budget
Not available
ROI
Not available
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

Pressure from his boss and a skin-cream client produces a talking boil on a British adman's neck.

Movie facts

Production details

Release date
May 5, 1989
Production
Virgin Films, Handmade Films
Countries
GB

Related indexes

Browse related box office pages

Studio / production companyVirgin Films Release year chart1989 box office Genre chartFantasy Genre chartComedy Genre chartDrama

JustWatch

Where to watch

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Showing United States availability.

Stream

Criterion Channel

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AI summary

Why this movie matters

Released in 1989, How to Get Ahead in Advertising is positioned in this dataset as a Fantasy, Comedy, Drama title from Virgin Films. Its box office profile shows that available worldwide gross is $418,053. For comparison, it currently sits #11,731 all-time in the current chart set and #175 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.